Sterling

The accent test

Can we guess your accent correctly?

Read a short passage aloud and Sterling will guess where in the world your English comes from.

Coming soon to iPhone and Android

Sterling is your AI-powered accent coach that teaches you how to speak English with a British accent confidently and clearly.

Join the waiting list and we’ll let you know the day the app launches.

How the accent test works

You read one short passage aloud, about thirty seconds of English. It is full of the sounds that differ most between accents: the th in Thursday and three, the r in parked, harbour and north, the vowels in path, grass and bottle, and the t in water and little.

Sterling’s accent model listens to your reading a few seconds at a time and compares what it hears with the accents it has learned. It then names the accent it hears most, shows where in the world that accent comes from, and lists any close second guesses.

Which accents can it recognise?

More than 40 accents of English, from around the world. They include American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Irish and Caribbean English, and the English of people whose first language is Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese, or who grew up in South Asia, West Africa, East Africa or the Philippines.

If it hears an accent from Britain or Ireland, it narrows it down: Southern English, Northern English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish or Northern Irish.

What happens to your recording?

Your reading is sent in short pieces to Sterling’s accent model, which runs on Google Cloud in London. Each piece is heard and then discarded: it is not stored, it is not linked to you, and it is not used to train any model. If the model cannot be reached, your browser listens to the recording itself and nothing leaves your device. The privacy policy has the details.

From your accent to British English

The accent test tells you where your English sounds like it comes from. Sterling, the app, goes further: say a sentence aloud and it marks every sound in it, then teaches you the one to fix first. A few minutes a day, in British English. It is coming soon, and you can join the waiting list above.