Accent (sociolinguistics)

Okay, so imagine you and your friends are playing a game. But instead of using words you already know, you all create your own made-up words that only you and your friends understand.

Now imagine someone else comes along who wants to play with you. They might have trouble understanding your made-up words at first, but after a while they might start using the same words too.

This is basically what happens with accents. Different groups of people make up their own way of pronouncing words, using different sounds and patterns that might be different from what other people use. Sometimes, people might have trouble understanding each other because their accents are different.

But just like in the game, people can learn to understand each other's accents with practice. And sometimes, people might even start using the same accents as each other, especially if they spend lots of time together or if they live in the same place.