I’ve always loved playing around with different accents and this is my attempt at an american one. At this point, I can’t pinpoint what it is that still makes it sound a bit off. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I also thought it would be fun to have you guess where I’m from. Thanks in advance!

https://voca.ro/1cKPMK6rkktM

41 comments

  2. There’s a bit of an accent on the a’s and similar vowel sounds, but I really had to listen for it. I’ll guess Poland/Czechia

  3. Don’t pronounce the “G” at the end of words (sleepin’ vs. “sleeping”). Use incorrect words. For instance, if you’re afraid of something, say you’re weary of it, instead of wary of it.

  4. I’d guess American, going off of this reading. Nice work.

    Some of the words were slightly off, though I’m not expert enough to say exactly how. I think you might have been using non-schwa vowels for some of the words on weak syllables.

  5. Are you Irish? There’s something Irish in the way you finish a word that ends in “-ed.”

    Overall very impressive, though.

  6. I can’t tell where you’re from, you’re really close to sounding American.

    Your speech is a little too enunciated. Native American English speakers are a little bit lazy and tend to drop some sounds, especially from the ends of words. For example, I caught the phrase “stinking it up.” This wouldn’t be super comment phrasing but if we did say it would sound more like “stinkin’ it up.” Also, work a little more on the inflections in your voice.

  7. Close your eyes and imagine that you’ve given up on life and you’re waiting for the sweet embrace of death, but she never comes. Instead, she curses you every day by making you live in Cleveland or Phoenix, you know, someplace that lacks any amount of charm or pizazz

    Once you open your eyes, you’ll feel this emptiness inside your soul as you hold back tears. You’ll feel this swelling in the back of your throat as you try with all your might to not break down.

    “One more month” you say, until you can finally take your dream vacation. You’re excited because you’ve never been anywhere exotic before. You think about how much fun you’re going to have at Disneyland!

    Now try the accent

  8. >How can I master the (standard) american accent?

    ​

    Americans do not have a standard American Accent. We’re getting closer to one, but we still have our own regional accents subtly peppered into our “American’ accent. Anyone trying to do a generic American accent isn’t going to sound American to many Americans (and that’s the true test)

    ​

    Master a Brooklyn accent, like what that Spiderman actor from the UK does, you can’t tell he’s doing an accent, he sounds 100% American. Tom Holland is his name

  10. The main thing that stuck out to me was that the rhythm was off, like the emphasis was on the wrong words and syllables at times. But that can also partly just be due to reading a script you aren’t familiar with (and some people are just naturally better or worse at reading aloud)

    You don’t swear like an American haha. “Gives me a pain in the ass” isn’t the way we’d say that and not really the place I’d expect to hear something being called a pain in the ass.

  11. Idk how to describe it exactly, but you hit your vowels weirdly. There’s way more emphasis than there should be? Like you’re trying to be a theater kid instead of just talking.

    Really pops out in these little two-word phrases you say: high notes, got (not god) damn…

    You also hit that h way too hard in humble

  12. Some of your vowel sounds aren’t quite there. The second ‘o’ in “moron” and the hard ‘ū’ in “too” jumped out at me in particular. Compared to other English speakers, Americans love vowels. We drag them out to take up proportionally more of the spoken word, and love diphthongs.

    I’ve taken like one linguistics class though so what I say should be taken with a proportional mountain of salt. You are honestly really close, in conversation I don’t think most people would be able to tell.

    I would guess you are from New Zealand.

  13. Your consonants are too sharp occasionally. But mainly, your cadence isn’t what I’d typically think of as American. It reminds me of Gaelic or Irish songs

  14. Very good work! There’s a little bit of an issue with the vowels. You said “sure” more like “shoore” rather than “sher” which sound more American.

    The t’s, th’s and d’s too. “Though” in “though they wanted” sounded like “dough dey wanted.” “God damn closet” sounded like “goth damn claws-ET” where it should sound more like “gahd damn clawsit.”

    But right before that with “people always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player…” was near perfect.

    You say “Teerific piano player” instead of “turrific.”

    “I don’t think he knows anymore whether…” was also pitch perfect.

    So really close. I could guess non native speaker if I was paying attention but I don’t think I could say what your native language is. Maybe German or Scandinavian of some type.

    Seriously though it is a great job. I suspect a lot of people would just assume American especially if they weren’t already primed to look for an accent.

  15. So there are only tiny little things that sound a little off, but it’s only because I’m hyper focused on it. If I just listened to that without any knowledge, I’d just think it was a typical American reading something. You don’t have any specific American accent, much more of a news anchor basic American non-regional accent type of thing.

    To me, if I had to guess where you’re from, I’d say the UK, specifically Ireland/Scotland, but there wasn’t anything in that audio that points to that, more about the inflection of your voice. That said, it’s a wild guess. I could see you being Germanic of some kind as well.

    Either way, great job. You don’t really come in and out, it’s very non-specific, and you have a very nice voice in general. Keep up the great work!

    Edit: someone else mentioned something about vowels, and I don’t disagree, but it’s not certain times when words flow together better, as if the “correction” of the next words accent is a quarter second behind. Again, being extremely nitpicky.

  16. I would’ve guessed Midwest closer by the Canadian border. Great job!!!!

    You sound great

  18. First, there is no “standard” American accent. Have you heard of the “Mid-Atlantic” accent? it’s like a cross between a British accent and a New England accent. People in old movies used that accent: think of how Katherine Hepburn spoke. That’s [mid-Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-katharine-hepburns-fake-accent/278505/), but it wasn’t real. it was what American film, radio & tv producers wanted people to sound like so they were easily understood by anyone who speaks English.

    I’d guess European: the consonants are too hard. I think the accent sounds a bit generic, like it could be from anywhere in the US. Like someone who grew up with a thick Southern drawl or a heavy Bronx accent & worked hard to get rid of it.

    I think most Americans soften hard consonants like T so they sound almost like Ds. And, a lot of people never say the final “g” in words. So, the T in “whatever” should sound a bit more like “whadever.”

  19. When you said “I’m n*O*t too su*R*e” and “I f*E*lt sort of sorry”, I could hear a bit of an Irish/Scottish accent, or at least something Northern European

    I also noticed that your ending T’s are too pronounced and can hear your air/breath coming out. In words like “noT”, “iT” and “closeT”. American T’s are usually very soft and often hardly pronounced.

  21. That is pretty damn good. Honestly, the giveaway is less accent itself and more cadence, or emphasis on some syllables on some points that feels off. But you’re definitely in the ballpark of “if you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have known you weren’t a native speaker”.

    Edit: it’s hard to make a guess at the language because there isn’t much there.

    You enunciate very clearly, which makes me think maybe German? That’s a habit a lot of Germans seem to have in High German, anyway.

    If you’re looking for ways to sound more American, mush your words together. Like you enunciated “pain in the ass” beautifully, but that’s not how an American would say it — we’d say “it’s a paininneeass”. The phrase kind of gets mushed up into one sound; most people won’t usually actually hit the “th” sound in that phrase’

    Or on “you’d hate it”, you hit the “t” in hate a little harder than most Americans would. Usually, it sounds more like “you’d hadeit” — the “t” sounds more like a “d”.

  22. It’s too crisp and clean and harsh. You sound like someone who is trying very hard to sound American.

  23. It’s a really good accent. I’d say you are Irish?

    :43 “goddamn closet” I think you are saying. That part needs work. It’s very enunciated and I’d let it flow more into the dds and not pronounce the t at the end so hard. More of a “clawzit” but not in a Southern US way.

    Also “not to sure” at the beginning sounds a little different but it is passable.

    If you hadn’t mentioned you are working on your accent I wouldn’t have known at all until :43 and wouldn’t have cared anyway.

  24. Outside of newscasters, there really isn’t a “standard” American accent. If you speak like a newscaster in everyday speech, it’s going to be really off-putting. Americans who believe they have no accent haven’t been outside of their home region.

    I would say listen to native speakers from a certain accent region, like the West Coast, Philadelphia, or Midwest, and learn how they pronounce certain vowel sounds and other idioms of their speech.

  25. That’s really good! My comments are about little details, because you are doing so well.

    I think that generally your voice is very forward on your palette. That’s a good habit for a professional voice worker, but American Standard has more mid-palette focus. Make room in your mid-palette, then some of that may fall into place.

    I noticed a pinched quality in some of the vowels—saying “piano” a few times really helped pinpoint it. Lengthen that diphthong, especially the back end. This might help: try saying “ehhh fuhgetaboudit” like a character in The Godfather, then try saying “ehhh piano” in the same way. That should help you feel the rhythm.

  26. It’s very good. If I could come up with an approximation, it feels like an upper-middle class accent from the upper Midwest, the kind of articulated voice you’d expect from the girl who runs for Senior Class President. And I mean that in a complimentary way.

    If you wanted to try for an accent that’s more widespread, I’d suggest rounding off your consonants just a little, softening them somewhere. Not much, if you want to still sound Midwestern.

    In truth, very few slip ups. You would probably blend into a crowd of Americans without much effort at all. Only after someone has spoken with you for quite awhile would they detect small things that might give it away.

  27. I had to do this when I started med school because I had a regional accent. My academic affairs dean *actually* asked me to tone down my accent, which I wasn’t even aware I had.

    Best thing you can do to pin down a standard American accent is watch TV news. Newscasters are expected to learn to talk this way.

    Your accent is already close to standard American. Some of the vowels, particularly your short a’s, sound vaguely Canadian. But if you told me you were from Seattle, I’d believe you.

  28. Very good for the most part. One thing that sticks out to me is that your T’s are very sharp and aspirated which is not very American. This is performative and narration, so it sounds a little more natural in this situation but in casual conversation this would not sound natural. Try swallowing the T’s at the end. It’s like a little nub on the end that is kind of like a clipped off D.

    *Id izzn his faul’d.*

  30. You pronounce the words a little forcefully if that makes sense? Like your pronunciation sounds like you are trying to say each word perfectly and hit it hard but in standard English we tend to be a bit lazy with pronunciations and our inflection rises and drops in ways that you don’t notice normally but if they are off sound very odd

  31. If you hadn’t told us you weren’t American, I would have guessed you were. There are some pronunciations or emphasis that would give you away as not being a native English speaker, like “moron” where you said “mor-in.” We say “closet” with more of a ‘z’ sound, but you said it with more of an ‘s’ sounds.

    “Stuff” at the beginning sounded off, but I’m not sure how to pinpoint it. It’s almost like you went soft on the ‘t’? Maybe the ‘u’ sound was off?

    Your R’s are very good, which I’ve heard is one of the hardest things for non-native speakers. Your ‘th’ is good as well.

    I honestly have no guess for where you’re from. It seems like you don’t have many features of your native language slipping through. I’d guess somewhere in Europe.

  32. Instead of can’t pinpoint use can’t figure out. Drop greatly. Sound a bit off could be just, sounds off.

    Just my thoughts

  33. >standard American accent

    The closest I can think of is the learned General American accent used mostly by newscasters.

    If you want to learn that accent then you should watch our news.

    I didn’t listen to the entire clip, but I do agree that you sound Irish.

  34. You’re good enough that at this point the best thing you could probably do is immerse yourself among American English speakers to polish up the slightly rough edges. It’s not a particular thing, it’s just many little things that need smoothing out if you want to improve. I don’t know if those things are teachable except through experience and constant microfeedback.

    Having said that, I’ve picked out a few pronunciation problems.

    * **a**ss – pain in the ass – that’s just not an American **a**, it’s got to be more like c**a**t

    * Mor**o**ns – it sounded like mor **i**ns, instead of more like the word “on” (ahn)

    * G**o**d damn – it sounded kind of like gawd but not in an American way. Maybe more like goowad

    * A big snob an**d** all.
    This was way too precise and over enunciated. It would sound a lot more like one word with less space between words and a much less emphasized or even absent d sound.

    A big *snob*··un·all

    The stress is on snob with a very slight pause after and then really no pause between un·all and much less stress than snob. You might write the pronunciation as snob’n’all.

    * playing right or no**t** – as others have said, that final t on “not” is way too pronounced and sharp. Look up the concept of an “unreleased t” or “stop t”. They are very common in American English on final syllables and you have to get that down if you want to get closer to sounding like American English. (While you’re at it, read up on the four different pronunciations of the letter t in various words and contexts. It’s not just one sound.)

    The whole thing comes out sounding more like one word.

    rightornot – but neither t has a sharp sound. The first one flows like a d (a flap t) and the second one is unreleased.

  35. We have friends in Tunisia and they’re send their daughter over for the summer to improve her English.

  36. Try speaking with the front of your mouth, almost with a smile, I know someone who did that and she sounds native

  38. The standard accent, as you call it, is a modernized version of American Stage Standard dialect. Your consonants are correct, and so is the emphasis of the words for the most part. But your vowels are off. For instance song should be pronounced more like sɔŋ or saŋ, not səŋ, which sounds more like the past tense.

  39. Try peppering your speech with American slang and idioms, like this

    “I’m standing on line because I’m fixin to buy some hella wicked pop, youse guys.”

  40. You sound great. I will say that Americans don’t generally say ‘Went mad”. It’s more likely to be “went crazy” or “Went nuts”

    “It was really phony” sounds more American than “It was very phony” In speech, at least, Americans are more likely to use “really” in place of “Very”. Not sure why that is.

    Little-Martha makes a good point about “Stinking it up” Americans often drop their Gs. “I’m thinkin’ about it” instead of “I’m thinking about it”

    On the whole I’d have to give your efforts to date an A. You’re within reach of an A+

    EDIT: About American cursing. It’s often pronounced “goddam” like one word, with no detectable space in between instead of “God damn”. Not always though.

    I honestly can’t tell where you’re from. From your posts, you seem to have been to Vienna, but that hardly makes you Austrian. You sound a bit like an Asian girl I used to know.

  41. You’re actually close to a Canadian accent in some parts, which means you’re approaching a northern states accent. Getting there

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