English Pronunciation Test: Which Sounds Does Your Mother Tongue Change?

Every Indian language has its own sound system, and each one bends English in predictable places. Hindi and Punjabi speakers often say “west” and “vest” the same way. Bengali speakers may blend S and SH. Tamil speakers often blur P and B. This pronunciation test checks the five sounds most likely to trip up speakers of your mother tongue, using minimal pairs: two words that differ by one sound only.

How do you use the pronunciation test?

1. Choose your first language. Pick Hindi, Tamil, Bengali or one of the 13 options. This decides which five sound pairs you test.
2. Choose the listener. Indian English is gentle. US or UK English is stricter and closer to how a foreign client hears you.
3. Say each word once. Press Say it now, say the single word on screen at normal volume, then wait for the next one.
4. Read the result for each pair. Clear means both words came through. Merging means the listener heard the other word.
5. Practise one pair a day. Use the fix under each merged pair for five minutes in front of a mirror, then retest.

How the sound check works

Each sound gets one minimal pair, such as vest and west. You say both words. If the speech recogniser hears “vest” when you said “west”, those two sounds are merging in your speech. It’s the same test a listener does in their head on a phone call, only faster.

The pairs are chosen by first language because the problems are predictable. These are the patterns teachers see most often; they aren’t true of every speaker.

Reading your result

Clear means both words were heard as you meant them. Merging means the listener heard the other word of the pair, which is the one to work on. Unclear usually means noise or a quiet mic, so repeat it before you worry.

Work on one sound at a time, for five minutes a day, in front of a mirror. Say the pair slowly, then in a phrase (“a wet vest”), then in a sentence. Once a pair is clear in sentences, move on. Accent work is covered in depth on our accent neutralization course page, and the accent ear test trains your ear on the same sounds.

Why do Indian languages change these sounds?

Every language has a fixed set of sounds, and your mouth learns those first. Most Indian languages have one sound where English has two. Hindi व covers both V and W, so “wet” and “vet” come out the same, a pattern linguists describe in detail in the phonology of Indian English. Many South Indian languages don’t separate P from B at the start of a word the way English does. Bengali uses one sound for S and SH in many words.

None of this is a defect. It’s just a mapping problem: your mouth reaches for the nearest sound it knows. Once you know which mapping is yours, it takes weeks, not years, to fix.

What does this test check that others don’t?

Most online pronunciation tests give you one score out of 100 for a whole sentence. Useful for a number, useless for knowing what to practise. This test works the other way. It picks the five pairs most likely to trip up speakers of your first language and tells you, pair by pair, which ones merge.

• Minimal pairs only. Two words, one sound apart, so nothing else can explain the result.
• By first language. Tamil speakers don’t get tested on the same pairs as Punjabi speakers.
• A fix for each pair. Mouth position, not theory.

How should you practise a merged pair?

Slow first. Say the pair five times, exaggerating the difference: “wwwest, vvvest”. Then put it in a phrase (“a wet vest”), then a sentence you’d actually say at work (“I’ll send the revised version on Wednesday”). Record yourself on your phone and listen back. Your ear catches what your mouth misses. Retest after a week.

Frequently Asked Questions