How to get an American accent?

Check out YT videos comparing American and British accents. They really help make the subtleties of each stand out and be more noticeable so that you can zero in on which parts of pronunciation you are interested in improving (whether you wanted to sound more British or American). For the Th sound, as other have said, you need to practice positioning the tongue on the edge of your upper teeth and get the timing down when to release the tongue and push air out. Think of it like learning how to operate a car's manual clutch, there's a timing sweet spot that you'll find. You should also practice the subtle difference in how hard to hit the Th sound, i.e. it's softer when the Th is followed by a vowel, and harder when followed by an R (as in "Three" or "Throw"). You need to pinch the edges of your mouth to start the sound for the latter. Also get in the habit of using contractions. One thing that gives away a non-native speaker is ironically speaking words completely clearly. It' one of the ways we can instantly recognize that a customer service center is offshore, their English is too crisp. Start with common contractions like "I'm" instead of "I am", "don't know" instead of "do not know", and then move on real casual speaking like "dunno".

I'm a NL English speaker so I can't give learning advice. But take it from me that North Americans especially find foreign accents charming, especially when your command of the language is at a native level. Most native North Americans don't speak any other language at all, so it's often perceived as being elevated if a foreigner has a skill most don't have (being multilingual). In any case, it's nearly impossible to have "no accent" in a second language. Personally, I'd recommend focusing on practicing your vocabulary and making yourself understood, and just embracing your difference because it might actually be advantageous in most situations!

Try to find/focus on one “American accent”, English speakers sound different all across the U.S. think of Philly compared to DC or South Carolina. It’s like when learning Spanish you can focus on Spain(even within Spain there is different dialects) or chile or Mexico or for Portuguese you can focus on different parts of Brazil or Portugal.

Constantly, and I mean constantly, be consuming American media. Go to bed listening to videos or podcasts, so long as they're American. The more you consume, the you'll start being able to subconsciously downplay your native accent.

I made this comment earlier on a different post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ENGLISH/comments/1ijl649/comment/mbf1pcc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/ENGLISH/comments/1ijl649/comment/mbf1pcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sound British? 😂

Watch movies and tv shows - Hollywood and news channels are pretty notorious for using a Cincinnati accent. It's the most neutral sounding accent and will be recognized everywhere.

For the "Th" sound, press the very tip of your tongue to your front 2 teeth, then move your tongue about a cm forward so the tip is juuuusstt sticking out. This is the starting position for the "Th" sound. To make the sound, curl the tip of your tongue upwards just slightly, as if you were trying to tough the front of your teeth while the bottom edge of those teeth are still touching your tongue and try to say "that / then / there" or any other word starting with the same sound. If you're trying to *just* make the "Th" sound on its own, it'll sound kinda like a rumbly bumble bee. There's also a less common pronunciation of "Th" in words like "with / breath," where the "Th" is more of a breathy hissing sound. For this version, your tongue should be in the same starting position, but instead of curling it leave it straight while pronouncing the sound.

Listen to Trump's speeches

1. You could pick up a book on accent training. 2. You need to learn phonetics and phonology. Theoretical knowledge is a great supplement. It's good to start with General American or the so-called mid-western, it's the most prominent variety of American English. 3. You need to speak with native speakers a lot. It helps a ton, it really does. 4. It's good to get some feedback from any American friends you might have... just ask them where, in their opinion, you sound most foreign. Start from there... It's a process, expect progress but not perfection. It takes a lot of time and exposure to a specific dialect of English.

Study the IPA and learn about English from a standpoint of phonetics and phonology. Learn physically where your articulators need to be to make the sounds you're struggling with.  If you want a specific starting point for additional phonetic things that are common in American English: - use of the schwa sound on unemphasized syllables. - unreleased plosives at the end of words.  - differentiating vowels that are diphthongs and monophthongs  I'm sure there are other big ones I'm forgetting, but this is what I can pull off the top of my head at the moment without dusting off my linguistics textbooks. 

self-awareness. you need to realize that you're still thinking in your native language. it's the same reason an american sounds weird trying to speak in yours. if you're going to speak english, then stop filtering it thru your language first.

Be sure to check out resources in speech therapy to help with the mechanics. And make sure you learn to hear the sounds. Google English Pronunciation Minimal Pairs. For your th sounds, I did a search for 'th sound high frequency words' and found these two pages. [https://www.home-speech-home.com/voiceless-th-words.html](https://www.home-speech-home.com/voiceless-th-words.html) [https://www.home-speech-home.com/voiced-th-words.html](https://www.home-speech-home.com/voiced-th-words.html)

Search [soundsamerican.net](http://soundsamerican.net) on Google. You will discover all the American English phonemes (sounds), and for each of them you'll find an entire page dedicated to them with explanations how to pronounce them, possible spellings, words to repeat to exercise etc..

I can speak with an American accent but I choose not to. I find the American accent cringe af. People who put on that fake, thick American accent just come off as annoying, uneducated and quite frankly embarrassing. I also believe those people are chronically online. No offense, I just think it’s not something to strive for. Having an accent doesn’t mean your English skills are poor. If anything, go for the British accent.