8 Sounds you need to Master to Speak with an American Accent

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A question that we get asked often is “How to speak with an American Accent?”. If you want to speak with an American accent, the most important thing you need to do is to master some key sounds that are used by Native English Speakers in the US. This article is about getting you familiarized with those key sounds and to give you a foundation to start practicing.

Speaking with an American accent can be hard for many reasons but the biggest challenge for some English learners is because certain sounds in Spoken American English are not found in other languages (and vice versa). For example, the Haitian language has no “R” sound. The Arabic language has very few Vowel sounds making it hard for  English learners from countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar pronounce words such as ship and sheep. Russian and Chinese language users roll off the tongue differently when speaking their native languages. All these little nuances between languages make it hard for people to speak with an American Accent, even if they have acquired a lot of knowledge about American English.

8 Sounds you need to Master to Speak with an American Accent

The sound /sh/

Touch the palate with the sides of the tongue and release the air slowly through the passageway formed down the center of the tongue. This is NOT a sound made with you voice.

Examples:

Sugar, Sure, Mention, Chef, Chicago, Ocean

Tongue twister challenge: She wished she had mentioned about the shoes to the chef

The sound /p/

Put your lips together firmly, stop the air completely, then pop the lips open. Not a vocal sound.

Examples:

Pot, Peter, Pay, Play, Help, Apple

Tongue twister challenge: Peter wanted to help Patty make the apple pie so he put the pot on the stove top.

The sound /m/

Press your lips together and make a voiced humming sound. Release air through your noise.

Examples:

Mother, My, tomorrow, mask, monkey

Tongue twister challenge: My mom made my monkey wear a mini mask

The sound /t/

Place the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, stop the air completely and then release the air. Do NOT make a vocal sound

Examples:

Tree, Team, Tom, Twelve, Tray, Tame

Tongue twister challenge: Terry and Tom told Tim they want to try twelve trays of tea

The sound /r/

Keep the tongue back. Do not let your tongue touch inside your mouth. Round your lips and push forward.

Examples:

Ride, Rabbit, Hard, Fire, Carol

Tongue twister challenge: Ryan rode the railway to Romania and meet Reese and Rowan in Rome.

The sound /W/

Relax your tongue, round your lips and press them back against the front of the teeth. Make the sound while releasing your lips.

Examples:

Ways, Where, Whistle, Away, Sweet

Tongue twister challenge: Where in Washington does Wayne and Wang live?

The sound /K/

Bring the back of the tongue to the velum, stop the air completely and then release with a voiceless sound.

Examples:

Cat, Clean, Crazy, Kettle, Kean

Tongue twister challenge: The crazy cat cleaned the kettle and made a cup of caramel coffee

August 2, 2016