Learn Cockney

Learn Cockney English online with practical, real-life situations! Simple, fast and easy learning. Speak Cockney language with confidence. Start now with uTalk!

About Cockney

Cockney is a dialect of English traditionally used by market traders in London’s East End. Its most distinctive feature is the use of rhyming slang, so a word like ‘telephone’ is replaced by a phrase which rhymes with it such as ‘dog and bone’. In conversation, the rhyming part of the new phrase gets left out, so you might hear locals say, ‘pick up the dog’ instead of ‘pick up the phone’.

Get Started

Where is it spoken?

London

Number of speakers

Not Applicable

Language family

Indo-European

Germanic

West Germanic

Fun facts — English (Cockney)

Perhaps two of the best known examples of Cockney rhyming slang are 'trouble and strife', which means 'wife', and 'apples and pears', which means 'stairs'.
Some ATMs in East London offer Cockney as a language - if you choose it, you'll have the option of taking out a Lady Godiva for £5 or fiver, a speckled hen for £10 or a pony for £25.
To be a true Cockney, you have to have been born within the sound of Bow Bells (the bells of St Mary-le-Bow) in East London.

Over 30 million people have started speaking a new language with uTalk

Over 2500 words and phrases, across 60+ topics covering everyday situations

Practise speaking and compare your pronunciation with native speakers

Game-based learning is fun and intuitive