English Talk

Today, our main highlight is on vocabulary. This, I believe is among this most frequent made mistake among the Malaysians, regardless East or West. Introducing the stars of the day, I present you... 'Accent' and 'Slang'.

People often the word slang in the place of accent. People are easily confused the word slang, thinking that that word actually carries the meaning of accent. This is actually incorrect. Example of the error:

"David talks with a British slang."

which they are actually trying to say:

"David talks with a British accent."

If you lookup for the meaning of slang. You will get these:

Slang (noun)

A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect.

Language peculiar to a group; argot or jargon: thieves' slang.

more information can be obtained from Dictionary.com

As for the word accent,

accent

n 1: distinctive manner of oral expression; "he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent"; "she had a very clear speech pattern" [syn: speech pattern] 2: special importance or significance; "the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis"; "the room was decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents" [syn: emphasis] 3: the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people; "the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "he has a strong German accent" [syn: dialect, idiom] 4: the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch); "he put the stress on the wrong syllable" [syn: stress, emphasis] 5: a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation [syn: accent mark] v 1: to stress, single out as important; "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet" [syn: stress, emphasize, emphasise, punctuate, accentuate] 2: put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" [syn: stress, accentuate]

more information can be obtained from Dictionary.com

So, slang is not accent, nor accent is slang. Please bear that in mind, and try to correct yourself or your friends in future.

Practice good english. It helps!

Cheers!