Free English accent test: read aloud, see what was understood
Read the six sentences below aloud and see, word by word, what speech recognition running in your browser understood. Each sentence is written for one sound, so the missed words point to the sounds to practise. Free, no sign-up, your voice stays on your device, and no made-up accent score.
Take the test: read these six sentences aloud
Tap Record, read the whole passage once at your normal speed, then tap Stop. Each sentence is written for one sound.
I think those three things are worth the trip. Put a big pile of paper by the back door. We wore very warm vests every evening. She walked home, cooked dinner and washed the cups. The strong street lights stayed on in the spring. Will you sit in this seat and eat a full meal?
Free, with no account. The first test downloads the speech recognition model once (about 75 MB on a phone, 240 MB on a computer); your voice stays on this device.
How the test works
- Find a quiet place and hold your phone or microphone at a normal distance.
- Tap Record and read the passage once, at your normal speed, as if to a person.
- Tap Stop. Whisper, an open speech recognition model, runs in your browser and writes down what it heard.
- Sada matches that against the passage, word by word, with the same matching it uses for every take in the app, and groups the words by the sound each sentence was written for.
What each sentence tests
| Sentence | Sound | Who often finds it hard |
|---|---|---|
| “I think those three things are worth the trip.” | TH | Speakers of Portuguese, Vietnamese, French and many other languages say S, F, T or D instead |
| “Put a big pile of paper by the back door.” | P and B | Arabic has B but no P, so Arabic speakers often say “bile” for “pile” |
| “We wore very warm vests every evening.” | V and W | Speakers of Hindi, German, Arabic and Vietnamese often swap them or merge them |
| “She walked home, cooked dinner and washed the cups.” | Word endings | Vietnamese speakers often drop final consonants; Brazilians often add an “i” after them |
| “The strong street lights stayed on in the spring.” | Consonant clusters | Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish speakers often add a vowel before or inside S clusters |
| “Will you sit in this seat and eat a full meal?” | Short and long vowels | Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and Vietnamese speakers often make “sit” and “seat” sound the same |
How to read your result
Every word understood: a speech recogniser that has never heard you understood the passage. That is a good sign that people will too, for these words, read at this speed. It does not mean you sound like a native speaker, and it does not need to.
Words missed in one sound: that sound is the first to practise. The result names the sound, the words that were missed, what to listen for, and one real line from a talk to repeat after the speaker.
Words missed everywhere: check the setting before the sounds. A quiet room, the microphone closer, and reading at your normal pace often change the result more than anything else.
What this test cannot tell you
- It gives no accent score. Nothing measures “how good” an accent is from one reading, and a number from 0 to 100 would pretend to. The test says which words were understood, which is what it measures.
- It does not say which accent you have. American, British, Indian or Nigerian: any accent that is easy to understand is good English. It does not compare you with a native speaker’s voice.
- It does not grade individual sounds. A recogniser hears words, and it guesses from context: it can understand “three” said as “tree” in a sentence that makes sense, and miss a word you said well. A missed word is a reason to listen again, not a diagnosis.
- It is not an exam score. It is not a CEFR level, an IELTS band or a TOEFL score, and it says nothing about grammar or fluency.
- It does not check stress or intonation. For those, your ear is the check: see word stress practice and question intonation.
After the test: practise the sounds with real speakers
Each sound has a guide and a real line from a talk. Open the line, listen to the speaker, say it after them, and compare your recording with theirs.
- TH: “The other thing that they had in common was this:” Practise this line →
- P and B: “Anybody go shopping and put on a pair of pants this week?” Practise this line →
- V and W: “Your whole world changes over night.” Practise this line →
- Word endings: “I was stressed, and I was frustrated.” Practise this line →
- Consonant clusters: “But that hasn't stopped me from getting stuck in slow-boiling pots, so I started studying why.” Practise this line →
- Short and long vowels: “I just wanted to sit in the audience and watch to learn more about Cambodia.” Practise this line →
To check a sentence of your own, use the pronunciation checker. To work on your accent over weeks rather than one reading, see how to reduce your accent in English.
Questions people ask
Is there a free English accent test online?
Yes. This one is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser: read six sentences aloud and see which words were understood, grouped by sound. Your recording is not uploaded.
Will it tell me if I sound American or British?
No. It does not identify or rate accents. It checks whether your words were understood, which matters more than which accent you have.
Can it rate my accent from 0 to 100?
No, and no single reading can do that honestly. Sada reports what it measures: which of the passage’s words a speech recogniser understood, and which sounds the missed words were written for.
Why was a word I said correctly marked as missed?
Speech recognition is not perfect. Background noise, a quiet microphone, a rushed first word or a recogniser guessing another word can all cause it. Read the passage again in a quieter place before drawing a conclusion.
Is my recording uploaded or saved?
No. The speech recognition model runs in your browser, so your voice stays on your device. The page keeps only the recording you can play back, until you leave or record again.
How often should I take it?
Once to find the sounds to work on, then again after a week of practising them with real lines. Comparing two readings tells you more than one.
Practise again tomorrow? Get one short sentence a day, ready to record in one tap.
You don't need to speak fast.
A slow line to begin with: listen to how “don’t need to” runs together, then say it at the speaker’s pace.
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