Accent training for people whose English is already good
You can hold a meeting, write a clean email and follow a movie. Yet people still ask you to repeat yourself, or guess where you're from in the first sentence. That usually isn't about grammar or even individual sounds. It's prosody: the stress, rhythm and melody of English. These guides take it apart, one habit at a time.
The core path (read in order)
- 1Why Your English Is Good but You Still Sound ForeignAdvanced learners often have strong grammar and vocabulary but still sound foreign. The cause is usually prosody: stress, rhythm and intonation.
- 2Word Stress in English: Rules, Patterns and PracticeHow English word stress works, why misplaced stress confuses listeners more than a wrong sound, and practical patterns and drills to fix it.
- 3Sentence Stress and Rhythm: Why English Sounds Like MusicEnglish is stress-timed: content words get the beat and small words shrink. How sentence stress and rhythm work, and drills to stop sounding robotic.
- 4Schwa and Weak Forms: The Sound That Makes English FluentSchwa is the most common vowel sound in English. Learn how weak forms of to, for, and, can and the work, and why full vowels make you sound robotic.
- 5American English Intonation: A Practical GuideHow pitch works in American English: the focus word, falling vs rising intonation, questions, lists and contrast, with exercises for flat-sounding speakers.
- 6Linking and Connected Speech in American EnglishWhy native speakers seem to talk fast: linking, the flap T, reductions and assimilation explained, with practice phrases for listening and speaking.
- 7The Shadowing Technique: How to Do It Right (Free Tools)Shadowing means speaking along with a native recording. A step-by-step method to improve rhythm, intonation and fluency, with free tools and common mistakes.
For Spanish speakers
Spanish and English organize rhythm in opposite ways. These guides target the exact habits Spanish speakers carry over.
Free tools for accent work
- Free toolYouGlish
Type any word or phrase and hear it said by real people in thousands of YouTube clips, filtered by US, UK or Australian English.
Best for: Hearing how a word really sounds inside a sentence, with natural stress and reductions, not just a dictionary recording.
intermediate · advanced · American, British and more
- Free tool Helps Spanish speakersSpeech Accent Archive (George Mason University)
Thousands of people from different language backgrounds read the same English paragraph, with phonetic transcriptions. Includes many native Spanish speakers and American English speakers.
Best for: Comparing a Spanish-accented reading with an American reading of the exact same text.
advanced · Hundreds of accents
- Free toolPraat
Free phonetics software used by researchers. Record yourself and see your pitch (intonation) line and vowel quality, then compare with a native recording.
Best for: Advanced learners who want to see their intonation, not just hear it.
advanced · Any
- Free tier youtubeRachel's English (YouTube)
One of the largest free libraries of American pronunciation videos: individual sounds, linking, reductions, and real-conversation analysis. A paid academy exists; the YouTube channel is free.
Best for: Advanced speakers who want to understand why American speech sounds the way it does.
intermediate · advanced · American
- Free toolAudacity
Free, open-source audio recorder and editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Slow down native audio without changing pitch and record yourself on a second track.
Best for: Shadowing: native audio on one track, your voice on the other.
intermediate · advanced · Any
- Free tier appSpeechling
Record yourself saying sentences and get feedback from human coaches. The free plan includes a limited number of corrections per month.
Best for: Getting a human to listen to your pronunciation, for free, a few times a month.
intermediate · advanced · American and British