What accent do I have? The English accent quiz
Say a few telltale words out loud — cot and caught, water, bath, Mary, marry and merry — and pick what you call a fizzy drink or running shoes. In about two minutes the quiz shows which of eleven English accent families your answers are closest to, and exactly which answers pointed there.
- 19 questions: sounds first, then words
- General American, Southern US, Canadian, British, Scottish, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and more
- A shareable result — then, if you like, read one sentence and get a score on every sound
What it can’t do: the quiz works from your answers, not your voice. It cannot tell where you were born or what your first language is — no quiz or AI can do that reliably.
cot · caught
Say “cot” and “caught”. Do they sound the same?
How the accent quiz works
Accents differ in a small number of places that linguists use to map them: whether you pronounce the r in car, whether cot and caught are one word or two, which vowel you use in bath, how the t in water comes out, whether pin and pen sound alike. Each question checks one of those, and each answer adds points to the accent families where that pronunciation — or that word, like pop, y’all or jandals — is typical.
Your result is the family with the most points; the percentage is how many of the points it could have earned on the questions you answered. Accents are tendencies, not rules: plenty of Londoners say the r in some words, and many Americans keep cot and caught apart. If you grew up in two places or learned English at school, expect a mixed result — that is accurate, not a mistake.
Want a number instead of a family? The English accent test and the American accent test record you reading and score every word and sound against a standard American English reference.
The 11 English accents in the quiz
General American
Most of the US West and Midland, US national media
The “neutral” US accent of national news: every r is pronounced, the t in water is a quick d-like tap, and for most speakers cot and caught have merged into one vowel. Bath, dance and can’t have the vowel of cat.
Say: water, car, caught, dance
Southern American
Texas to the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama
The vowel of I and time loses its glide (“tahm”), pin and pen sound the same, and vowels are drawn out and sometimes broken in two. Y’all is the second-person plural; a fizzy drink is often just “a coke”.
Say: time, pen, nice, y’all
US Northeast (New York, Boston, Philadelphia)
New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and around
Cot and caught stay clearly apart (caught has a raised, rounded vowel), Mary, marry and merry are three different words, and traditional Boston and New York speech drops the r after a vowel (“pahk the cah”). Soda, sneakers, and in Philadelphia, youse.
Say: caught, coffee, marry, park
Inland North and Upper Midwest
Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Minnesota
Around the Great Lakes the short a of cat rises toward “kyat” and the vowel of lot moves forward, so hot can sound like hat to outsiders; further north, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the vowels of go and day are pure and long (“gooo”). A fizzy drink is pop.
Say: cat, hot, go, bag
Canadian
Canada outside Quebec French
Close to General American — rhotic, tapped t, cot and caught merged — with “Canadian raising”: the vowel in about, house and price starts higher before a voiceless consonant, which Americans hear as “aboot”. The last letter is zed, a fizzy drink is pop, and sports shoes are runners.
Say: about, house, price, sorry
Southern British (RP and London)
London, the South East, “BBC English” (Received Pronunciation)
Non-rhotic — car is /kɑː/, no r unless a vowel follows — with the long “ah” in bath, dance and can’t, a rounded vowel in hot, and the gliding /əʊ/ of go. London speech adds the glottal stop in water (wa’er) and pronounces th as f in think.
Say: bath, car, hot, go
Northern English
Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Yorkshire
Bath and dance keep the short a of cat, and strut and foot share one vowel, so bus rhymes with push. Go and face are often pure vowels (“goh”, “fehs”), most speakers drop the r after a vowel, and the evening meal is tea.
Say: bus, bath, go, face
Scottish
Scotland
Rhotic, often with a tapped or rolled r, pure vowels in go and face, no long–short contrast in pairs like pull and pool, and the ch of loch at the back of the mouth. Film can come out as two syllables, “fil-um”, and the glottal stop is common in water and bottle.
Say: girl, loch, go, film
Irish
Ireland
Rhotic, with a clear l, a th that is often a dental t or d (“tree” for three), pure vowels in go and face, and an extra vowel in film (“fil-um”). The t between vowels is often a soft hiss rather than a tap. You plural is ye or youse.
Say: three, film, go, car
Australian
Australia
Non-rhotic like southern England, with a shifted set of vowels: face starts open (“fice” to outsiders), go starts near “gaow”, and the vowel of fleece is long and gliding. The t in water is a tap, as in American English. Flip-flops are thongs.
Say: day, mate, go, no
New Zealand
New Zealand
Non-rhotic and close to Australian, but the short i of fish moves to the middle of the mouth (“fush and chups” to Australians) while the e of yes rises toward “yis”. Near and square often sound the same. Flip-flops are jandals.
Say: fish, six, yes, deck
The TikTok accent check: the words and what they reveal
The “accent check” (or accent challenge) is the trend where people read the same list of words on camera so everyone can compare. These are the words that come up most, and what each one tells a listener.
- auntLike “ant” in most of the US and Canada; “ahnt” in England, New England and many Black American speakers.
- routeRhymes with “root” in Britain and much of the US; with “out” in parts of the US and Canada.
- roofThe oo of “food” for most; some Americans use the shorter vowel of “foot”.
- caramelThree syllables (“car-a-mel”) or two (“car-mel”) — a well-known US split.
- pecan“Pee-can”, “pi-kahn”, “pee-kahn”: a true regional marker in the US South and Midwest.
- waterTapped t (US, Canada, Australia), clear t (RP, Ireland) or glottal stop (London, Scotland).
- caughtSame vowel as “cot” in the US West, Canada and Scotland; different elsewhere.
- Mary, marry, merryOne sound for most Americans and Canadians; three for the US Northeast and most of Britain.
- syrup“Seer-up” or “sir-up”.
- mayonnaiseThree syllables (“may-o-naise”) or two (“man-aise”), common in parts of the US.
- pajamasThe middle vowel of “jam” or of “father”.
- crayonOne syllable (“cran”), two (“cray-on”) or “crown” in parts of the US.
- data“Day-ta” or “dah-ta” — both standard.
- againRhymes with “pen” or with “rain”.
- tomato“Tom-ay-to” (US, Canada) or “tom-ah-to” (Britain, Ireland, Australia).
- herbSilent h in American English (“erb”), h pronounced in British.
- squirrelOne syllable in much of the US (“skwurl”), two in Britain (“squi-rrel”).
- bothA plain “both” — or with an intrusive l (“bolth”) for some US speakers.
Do your own accent check — and get it scored
Read the list in two takes. Each word and sound is scored against a standard American English reference, so a British or Australian “tomato” will score lower on purpose — use it to see where you differ, not as a grade.
FAQ
Can this quiz tell where I am from or what my first language is?+
No. It compares your answers about how you say a handful of telltale words and what you call everyday things with the textbook features of eleven English accent families. It does not listen to your voice to guess a country, a nationality or a first language — no tool can do that reliably, and accents mix: people move, learn English at school, and pick up features from TV. Treat the result as “which family your English is closest to”, not as an identity.
What does the recording part measure?+
The optional read-aloud step uses TonePerfect’s English pronunciation scorer: it compares each word and sound you say with a standard American English reference and scores how close it is. A low score on a word means it sounded further from that American reference — not that it is wrong; a Scottish or Australian speaker will differ from it on purpose. It does not measure closeness to British Received Pronunciation or any other accent.
What is the TikTok accent check?+
A trend (also called the accent challenge, from YouTube and Tumblr) where people read the same list of words — aunt, route, caramel, pecan, water, caught, Mary/marry/merry and so on — so viewers can compare how each region says them. The list and what each word reveals is on this page, and you can record yourself reading it.
Is there a “neutral” English accent?+
Every accent is an accent. General American and Received Pronunciation are the reference accents of US and British dictionaries and broadcasting, which is why learners often aim for one of them — but each is spoken natively by a minority of English speakers.
How do I change or reduce my accent?+
Pick one target (General American is what our scorer measures against), then work on the few sounds that separate you from it most — usually r, the t in water, and a couple of vowels. The English accent test scores you on those sounds and the TonePerfect app drills the ones you miss.
Working on your accent?
TonePerfect listens to every word you say, finds the sounds that move you furthest from your target and drills exactly those — an AI pronunciation coach for 10 languages.