How to Lose Your Accent in (American) English
by Margaret Magnus
copyright by Margaret Magnus
all rights reserved

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Disclaimers:
Before I begin, I must warn you that I'm about the least competent
person to speak on this subject, because by now there's not a single
language I speak without an accent including the ones I have spoken
since childhood. But in periods when I tried really hard, I've pretty much
managed to lose my accent in a few of them intermittently off and on
until I got lazy and the whole thing became mush.
Be further warned that this little treatise won't help you at all with your
grammar. This is for the legions of you naturalized Americans who
actually speak English better than I do, but who have this irritating
accent you'd like to be free of. And it's for all you others too who soon
will speak English better than I do. It's a good idea to get the accent right
from the start, if that matters to you.

First some general points:
1. Were you over 40 when you first learned to say 'hello' in English?
Everybody has told you all your life that it's in principle impossible to
lose or improve your accent? Wrong. Losing your accent does not
require some kind of genius or magic. You do it like you do anything
else by understanding what is required and by practicing. It takes more
practice after you're 40, but it's not impossible, and it's fairly easy in
most cases to radically improve.
2. The basic principle is this. Slow down. Everyone can speak American

they already have notions about how things are pronounced, and they
rely on their notions rather than on what they actually hear. So at this
point, slow down to one word at a time, and say it over and over again
without an accent. Every time you say the word the wrong way, you are
programming your neurons the wrong way so say it as often as you
can the right (all-American, apple pie) way. Don't speed up until it's easy
to do so without losing your accent. You'll notice that whatever you can't
do fast, you can't do slowly either. You'll also notice if you pay attention
that you're often simply mistaken about which vowel is actually used
you're thinking it's rounded at the lips like 'o', when it's actually a nice
wide 'ah', as in 'hot'.

American Specific:
All the above advice is equally applicable to learning any language.
However, in addition to this, there are a few handy tricks they teach you
in linguistics school about the differences between English
pronunciation and those of other languages.
1a. The vowels are usually the hardest for people. English has a lot of
them compared to most languages, so the differences between them is
likely to be more subtle than what you're used to. Like the other
Germanic languages, English has a series of long vowels and another
series of short vowels. Foreigners usually have the most trouble with the
distinction between short 'e' (as in bed) and short 'a' (as in bad) and
between long 'i' as in 'sheet' and short 'i' as in 'fit'. : - ) The long vowels
are mostly diphthongized in English this is not usually true of other
Germanic languages (in case you're German or Swedish). This means
that many of our long vowels are a combination of two vowels the last
one is 'y' or 'w'. Our long 'a' as in 'fate' has a generous 'y' at the end.
* You can draw the vowel in 'feeeeeeyyyyyyyt' out for a long time (2
seconds) without gaining an *accent* An accent happens when you

same, but in New England, they're all different
1d. In New England and other regions, they have a more rounded 'a',
which doesn't exist in the West. For me 'cot' and 'caught' are pronounced
the same. Not so out here in the East.
2. Now some words about consonants Linguists distinguish different
kinds:
labial (pronounced at lips): b,p,v,f,m,r(initially),w
dental (pronounced just behind the teeth): th (thing) and th (that)
alveolar (pronounced in English behind the alveolar ridge):
d,t,j,ch,z,s,n,r
palatal (flatten the tongue in the middle of the mouth): sh,l,y
velar (pronounced at the velum): g,k,h,ng
stop (fully stops the airflow in the mouth): b,d,g,p,t,k
fricative (air flows through a narrow opening in the mouth):
v,th,z,f,th,s,sh,h
affricate (stop and fricative at the same time): j (d+zh), ch (t+sh)
nasal (air flows through the nose): m,n,ng
liquid (historically always mixed up): l,r
glides (vowels used as consonants): w,y
voiced (pronounced while using the voice):
b,d,g,v,th(this),z,j,m,n,ng,r,l,w,y
unvoiced (pronounced while voice is still): p,t,k,f,th(thing),s,sh,h,ch
3. What I have called alveolars here are dentals in Slavic and Romance
and many other language families. That is, they are pronounced in Slavic
by touching the tongue to the back of the teeth. When you pronounce
them in English, the tongue does not touch the teeth, but rather hits just
behind the alveolar ridge (that bump in the roof of your mouth just
behind the teeth).
4. The unvoiced stops in American are aspirated at the beginning of a
syllable. This is not true in Slavic or Romance. So there's a slight puff of

In American, you start articulating the 'v' or 'z' before the vocal chords
start moving. You Russians have your American friends pronounce the
Russian word 'Zdravstvyujte' for you. See if their lame 'z' in the
beginning doesn't sound almost like an 's' to you.
9. In a great many languages, there can be no voiced consonants at the
end of the syllable. This is not true in English. 'Log' is different from
'lock', 'bid' is different from 'bit', 'raze' is different from 'race'. Be
especially careful of those plurals and 3rd person singular verbal
endings. Most of them are spelled 's' but actually pronounced 'z'
anything after a vowel or another voiced consonant is pronounced 'z', not
's' - 'has', 'watches', 'bugs', 'news', 'pans', 'initiations'.
10. The American 'r'. When you guys make fun of our pronunciation,
you overdo the 'r'. It is pronounced with rounded lips in initial position,
but not final position. And don't velarize it so much. Our 'r's and our
vowels vary the most dialectally, so you have to decide what version of
American you want to speak.
11. 'th' is pronounced behind the teeth, where most languages
pronounce 'd' and 't'. It's not achived by sticking your tongue between
your teeth.
12. 'd' and 't' between vowels in American are pronounced the same.
It's what we call a 'flap', in some ways similar to one strike against the
roof of the mouth of a rolled 'r'. It's a voiced sound. 'Bitter' and 'bidder'
are pronounced the same. It also happens in speeach between words
"What did you do?" becomes 'wUDijUdu?' The final 'd' there is not
pronounced as a flap, because it comes at the beginning of a stressed
syllable.
13. Once you've got individual words down cold, start listening to the
intonation. American rises and falls less dramatically in normal speech
than most languages except when we get emotional.
That's all I can think of for now.