How do you get rid of an American accent when speaking Spanish?

When you listen to children who have grown up speaking two languages, you can be astonished by how completely they can adapt to accents. One moment, they can be speaking flawless Spanish with a perfect Spanish accent, the next moment, their English sounds like someone who has never stepped foot outside of America.

For grown-ups, it can be much more difficult to achieve this ability of rapid switching. It can require a lot of concerted mental effort to think about how to “sound Spanish”, or “sound American”. Many adult learners that try to pick up Spanish later in life wonder if they can ever really speak Spanish without an obvious American accent.

For some people, particularly those that are naturally good at impressions, this comes easily. For others, it can seem like it will never happen.

How to speak Spanish without an accent

The truth of the matter is that it is possible – but not necessarily easy – to ditch your Spanish accent when speaking Spanish. But, if you focus on a few key things, you can learn to be convincing in a majority of circumstances that you might find yourself in.

One trick that will get you most of the way there is to really focus in on how syllables are pronounced. For example, when you hear a British person say “tomato”, you can immediately tell that they’re not from America. Similarly, there are some sounds in Spanish that Americans nearly always mispronounce, and it’s a dead giveaway.

Luckily, this is one part of Spanish that is pretty easy to wrap your head around. Letters within Spanish words are basically always pronounced exactly the same way (not like in English, where “read” can either be pronounced “reed” or “red”, depending on the context). Just look at a word like mañana. Each “a” is pronounced exactly the same way, like “ah”. Pretty much any time you see an “a” in a Spanish word, it’s going to be pronounced the same way: tomato, escuela, papel. So, learn the way the vowels are pronounced and practice those sounds ad nauseam. (It’s not a bad idea to spend a little time on the more troublesome consonants, particularly ñ or the double consonants “ll” and “rr”, which trip up a lot of Americans as well). That will enable you to pronounce at least the sounds of almost any Spanish word correctly.

Can you learn to speak in a Spanish accent?

Also, remember to pay attention to the accentuation of a word. Here, we’re talking about accents like á, é, í. These can clue you in on where you are supposed to emphasize a syllable. They’re not always present, but there are some pretty basic rules on which syllable to accentuate that you will start to pick up on as you learn.

This is actually even more important than it might seem at face value. While a Spanish accent can differ wildly depending on where in the world you are (Colombians speak very differently than Spaniards, for example), proper pronunciation will help you wherever you go.

But what about the actual spoken accent? The pronunciation will only get you so far. How do you speak in Spanish without an American accent?

If you’re in school, ask your teacher to critique your Spanish accent during office hours. If you aren’t in school and you can’t afford a voice coach or 1:1 instruction, you need to listen to Spanish all of the time. Listen to Spanish music on YouTube, free Spanish audiobooks, and Spanish movies, TV shows, talk radio or podcasts. If you want to avoid picking up different geographic accents and mixing and matching them in your own speech, try to model your Spanish accent after a single singer or actor.

How to get rid of your accent when speaking Spanish

If you really want to take your Spanish accent to the next level, record yourself speaking and listen back to it. Take notes on areas to improve, practice them, then record yourself again in one week. Take note of where you’ve improved, and what still needs work. This is a little challenging at first (everyone hates the sound of their own voice!), but it can work wonders. If you want to ratchet up the difficulty, try recording yourself practicing these Spanish tongue twisters.

We also have another article you might enjoy on how to fake a Spanish accent, which has a few additional tips and tricks.

If you practice all of these techniques, over time you will notice that you can speak Spanish without the American accent – and nobody will say that you speak like a Gringo anymore! Believe it or not, speaking with a convincing Spanish accent can make a huge difference in your life. People naturally gravitate towards other people that sound like them – so, you might even notice other Spanish speakers being more patient, and more willing to include you. This will in turn give you more opportunities to practice your Spanish accent and skills. Plus, if you are not immediately identifiable as an outsider, you’re less likely to get scammed or taken advantage of while traveling abroad. And if people already know you’re not from nearby, they’ll at least be impressed by how well you’ve mastered the language!

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Si with accent
Porque
Beer in Spanish