Free American English Accent Test

A free English accent test that starts with your ear

Most online accent tests record your voice and let software score it. This American accent test checks something that comes first: whether you can hear the sounds that turn one American English word into another, like thing and sing, or cat and cut. When two sounds seem the same to you, it's much harder to say them differently.

The recordings are from Julie Cunningham, MA, CCC-SLP, a licensed speech-language pathologist who has taught English since 2007. She works online with professionals throughout the U.S. and around the world.

How it works

  1. Choose your first language, or skip this step. The quiz then focuses on sounds that are often hard for speakers of that language.
  2. Listen to a word and choose which of two words you heard. There are 8 pairs, and it takes about two minutes.
  3. See your score and the pairs you missed. For each missed pair, you can hear the difference, see how each sound is made, and test yourself again.

What the test checks

The word pairs cover 22 pairs of sounds that English learners often mix up, 10 with vowels and 12 with consonants. Each test plays 8 word pairs.

  • Vowels: beat and bit, bed and bad, cat and cut, hat and hot, pool and pull, late and let. American English has more vowel sounds than most languages, so this is where many learners miss the most.
  • Consonants: lead and read, thing and sing, three and tree, they and day, ice and eyes, chew and shoe.

If you choose your first language, the test leans toward the sounds that speakers of that language often find hard. For example, Japanese and Korean speakers often hear L and R as the same sound. Spanish speakers often hear beat and bit as the same word. Many speakers of French, Italian, Portuguese, Farsi, Tagalog and Turkish find the two TH sounds hard, and Arabic speakers often mix up P and B.

How to check how you sound

This test checks your ear. Here is a simple way to check your speech at home:

  1. Take the test and write down the pairs you missed.
  2. Record yourself on your phone saying each pair slowly, a few times: beat, bit, beat, bit.
  3. Wait a few minutes, then listen back. Can you tell which word you said each time? If you can't, a listener probably can't either.
  4. Go back to your results and listen to Julie say the same words. Then record yourself again.

If you'd like an expert to listen to you, Julie works with clients one-to-one in private accent training on Zoom.

Try a longer test

In this video, Julie takes you through five pronunciation challenges: American and British English, 10 commonly mispronounced words, minimal pairs, consonant clusters and sentence stress. See how many you get right.

Questions

Does this quiz test my accent?

It tests your ear for the American accent: whether you can hear the sounds American English depends on. It doesn't record your voice. To find out how you sound, try the recording steps above, or have a professional listen to you. Contact Julie if you'd like to know where to start.

Is this an American or British English accent test?

American English. Every word is Julie's recording, and the sounds are the ones used in standard American English.

Can an AI accent test check my accent?

AI accent tests compare your recording with a model of an accent, and some guess where you're from. They can give you a score, but they can't see what your tongue and lips are doing, so they rarely tell you how to change a sound. A speech-language pathologist can.

Is it free?

Yes, and you don't need an account. If you like, you can have your results and Julie's lessons for the sounds you missed sent to your email.

Can I take it again?

Yes, twice a week. Each time you get a new set of word pairs.

How can I improve my American accent?

Start with the sounds you missed. Julie's free lessons for every American English vowel and consonant are on this site. You can also train with her in English Pro, her online accent course with live classes every week, or one-to-one in private training on Zoom.