The English Accent Test, Explained

What an accent test measures

A modern AI accent test breaks your speech into three layers and scores each one independently:

• Phoneme accuracy — are individual sounds (vowels and consonants) clear and correct?
• Word stress — do you emphasize the right syllable in multi-syllable words?
• Prosody — is the rhythm and intonation of full sentences natural?

How AI scoring works

The test records a short prompt, transcribes it, and compares the audio to a reference. A speech model returns a confidence score per phoneme; those are aggregated into a 0–100 accent score. Most tools weight prosody heavily because it's the strongest signal of "sounds native."

What a good score looks like

• 90–100 — Indistinguishable from a native speaker on the prompt.
• 75–89 — Clearly understandable, light accent, occasional sound substitutions.
• 60–74 — Understandable but noticeable accent; some vowels or stress patterns off.
• Below 60 — Communication works but listeners need to focus; targeted practice will move the needle fast.

How to actually improve

1. Shadow native audio. Listen and repeat in real time — copy the rhythm, not just the words.
2. Drill problem phonemes. Most learners struggle with 3–5 specific sounds; isolate them.
3. Record yourself. Comparing your audio to the reference is the fastest feedback loop there is.
4. Practice connected speech. Native English links and reduces words ("gonna," "wanna," elided t).