American accent practice with real speakers

American-accent shadowing uses a chosen American English speaker as a listening and speaking model. It is practice copying that speaker’s delivery, not a test of whether your accent is correct.

Try one line nowListen to one short line, record your take, then play it beside the original. Free, with no account.

Three things to listen for

T that sounds like a quick D

Between two vowel sounds, American T usually becomes a quick, light D, so “little” sounds close to “liddle”. Listen for it here:

“Now, when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.”
Tim Urban · Practise this line →

The R after a vowel

Americans pronounce the R in words like “world” and “major”; most British accents drop it.

“from one of the finest universities in the world.”
Steve Jobs · Practise this line →

Small words said small

In fast speech, “want to” and “a lot of” shrink and join the words around them. Captions write them out in full, so listen to what the speaker actually says, and copy that.

“And how many of you know at least one person that you avoid because you just don't want to talk to them?”
Celeste Headlee · Practise this line →

The talks, slowest to fastest

Talk	Level	Length	Speed	Try a line
Shia LaBeouf "Just Do It" Motivational Speech	A2	1 min	99 wpm	it don't let your dreams be dreams
Carol Dweck The Power of Believing That You Can Improve	B1	10 min	105 wpm	I heard about a high school in Chicago where students had to pass a certain number of courses to graduate,
Brené Brown Brené Brown on Empathy	B2	3 min	132 wpm	So, what is empathy and why is it VERY different than sympathy?
Oprah Winfrey Harvard Commencement Address (2013)	B1–B2	29 min	133 wpm	To President Faust, my fellow honorands, Carl,
Robert Waldinger What Makes a Good Life?	B1	13 min	138 wpm	What keeps us healthy and happy as we go through life?
Patrick Winston (MIT) How to Speak	C1	64 min	139 wpm	PATRICK WINSTON: The Uniform Code of Military Justice
Conan O’Brien Dartmouth Commencement Address (2011)	C1	24 min	140 wpm	I've been living in Los Angeles for 2 years and I've never been this cold in my
Brené Brown Listening to Shame	B2	21 min	141 wpm	I'm going to tell you a little bit about my TEDxHouston Talk.
Robert Waldinger What Actually Makes a Good Life, According to 85 Years of Data	B2–C1	17 min	141 wpm	- I started out as an intern in pediatrics and I would see one ear infection after another,
Josh Kaufman The First 20 Hours — How to Learn Anything	B1	19 min	142 wpm	Two year ago, my life changed forever.
Kelly McGonigal How to Make Stress Your Friend	B1–B2	14 min	143 wpm	But first, I want you to make a little confession to me.
Bill Gates We Can Make COVID-19 the Last Pandemic	B1–B2	15 min	143 wpm	In the year 6 CE, a fire devastated Rome.
Mel Robbins How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over	B1	22 min	146 wpm	TEDx – oh my God, blinding light!
Rita Pierson Every Kid Needs a Champion	B1	8 min	147 wpm	either at the schoolhouse, on the way to the schoolhouse,
Denzel Washington Penn Commencement Address (2011)	B1	23 min	147 wpm	Please join me in welcoming Denzel Washington.
Oprah Winfrey Stanford Commencement Address (2008)	B1	30 min	147 wpm	Well, thank you, President Hennessy, and to the trustees and the faculty,
Angela Lee Duckworth Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance	B1	6 min	148 wpm	I left a very demanding job in management consulting for a job that was even more demanding: teaching.
Robert Waldinger The Secret to a Happy Life — Lessons from 8 Decades of Research	B1–B2	29 min	148 wpm	I am delighted to be here and grateful to all of you for joining us for this discussion.
Dan Pink The Puzzle of Motivation	B2	19 min	149 wpm	I need to make a confession at the outset here.
Jill Bolte Taylor My Stroke of Insight	B1–B2	20 min	149 wpm	I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia.
Adam Grant How to Stop Languishing and Start Finding Flow	B2–C1	16 min	149 wpm	I know you all have long to-do lists, but I hate wasting time so much that I have a to-don't list.
Bill Gates The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready	B1	9 min	150 wpm	When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear war.
Bill Gates Teachers Need Real Feedback	B1	10 min	151 wpm	It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player,
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Address (2005)	B2	15 min	154 wpm	Thank You. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement
Brené Brown The Power of Vulnerability	B2	21 min	154 wpm	So, I'll start with this: a couple years ago, an event planner called me because I was going to do a speaking event.
Arthur Benjamin Lightning Calculation and Other “Mathemagic”	B1–B2	15 min	155 wpm	My name is Art Benjamin, and I am a "mathemagician."
Matt Cutts Try Something New for 30 Days	B1	3 min	159 wpm	a few years ago I felt like I was stuck in a rut
Bill Gates Innovating to Zero!	B1–B2	30 min	163 wpm	I'm going to talk today about energy and climate.
Tim Urban Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator	B1–B2	14 min	164 wpm	So in college, I was a government major, which means I had to write a lot of papers.
Adam Grant The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers	B1–B2	15 min	165 wpm	Seven years ago, a student came to me and asked me to invest in his company.
Derek Sivers The “Good Enough” Life Choice	B1–B2	19 min	166 wpm	I'm so excited to be in Taiwan. I've always wanted to come to Taiwan.
William McRaven Make Your Bed — Speech Excerpt	B2	6 min	169 wpm	- If you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed.
Simon Sinek Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe	B1–B2	12 min	169 wpm	There's a man by the name of Captain William Swenson who recently was awarded the congressional Medal of Honor
Simon Sinek How Great Leaders Inspire Action	B2	19 min	171 wpm	How do you explain when things don't go as we assume?
David Foster Wallace This Is Water	B2	22 min	172 wpm	There are these two young fish swimming along
Adam Grant What Frogs in Hot Water Can Teach Us About Thinking Again	B2–C1	16 min	173 wpm	You might have heard that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out right away,
Celeste Headlee 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation	B1	12 min	174 wpm	All right, I want to see a show of hands:
Susan Cain The Power of Introverts	B2	19 min	176 wpm	When I was nine years old, I went off to summer camp for the first time.
Dan Gilbert The Psychology of Your Future Self	B2	7 min	176 wpm	At every stage of our lives we make decisions that will profoundly influence the lives of the people we're going to become,
Amy Cuddy Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are	B2	21 min	178 wpm	So I want to start by offering you a free no-tech life hack,
J.J. Abrams The Mystery Box	B2	18 min	179 wpm	I want to start today -- talk about the structure of a polypeptide.
Derek Sivers How to Start a Movement	B1	6 min	182 wpm	Ladies and gentlemen, at TED we talk a lot about leadership and how to make a movement.
Elizabeth Gilbert Your Elusive Creative Genius	B2	19 min	184 wpm	Writing books is my profession but it's more than that, of course.
Cameron Russell Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m a Model.	B1	10 min	184 wpm	and for the last little while, I've been a model.
Derek Sivers Keep Your Goals to Yourself	B1–B2	4 min	185 wpm	Everyone, please think of your biggest personal goal.
Adam Grant Are You a Giver or a Taker?	B2	13 min	186 wpm	I want you to look around the room for a minute and try to find the most paranoid person here --
Derek Sivers Why You Need to Fail	B2	5 min	189 wpm	...six months ago, and I emailed asking if I can please come.
Terri Trespicio Stop Searching for Your Passion	B2	11 min	191 wpm	The day I got laid off from my job at Martha Stewart, I was relieved.
Dan Gilbert Why We Make Bad Decisions	C1	34 min	195 wpm	We all make decisions every day; we want to know what the right thing is to do -- in domains from the financial
Derek Sivers Weird, or Just Different?	B2–C1	3 min	205 wpm	So, imagine you're standing on a street anywhere in America and a Japanese man comes up to you and says,
Shawn Achor The Happy Secret to Better Work	B2–C1	12 min	210 wpm	When I was seven years old and my sister was just five years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed.
Elizabeth Gilbert Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating	B2–C1	7 min	210 wpm	So, a few years ago I was at JFK Airport about to get on a flight,

American vs British, in short

The two differences you hear most: the R after a vowel, which Americans say and most British accents drop, and the T between vowels, which Americans soften to a quick D while British speakers keep it as a T or stop it in the throat. To practise the other one, see British accent practice.

Want to copy a particular person? Practise Barack Obama’s address to students, Taylor Swift’s NYU speech or Friends clips, or choose from shadow the person you want to sound like.

How to practise

Open an exercise from this guide. Choose a captioned video for this guide’s topic and a line whose meaning you understand.
Listen and read the caption, then say the line after the speaker in Repeat mode.
Try saying the line with the speaker in Shadow mode, following the rhythm and pauses.
Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
Repeat the line while focusing on one difference you heard, then move to another line.

Questions people ask

How can I practise an American accent for free?

Pick a clear American speaker from this page, shadow their talk ten minutes a day, and record yourself to compare with the original.

Which American speaker should I copy?

One you enjoy and understand. Calm speakers like Robert Waldinger or Steve Jobs are easier to copy than fast ones like Shawn Achor.

Does Sada rate my accent?

No. Sada shows which of your words came across and how far behind the speaker you were. You judge the accent by ear, playing your take next to the original.

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