Boston and eastern New England
The Boston accent
The Boston accent is the best-known non-rhotic accent in the United States: the R in “car” and “Harvard” is dropped, and an R can appear where there is none, as in “idea-r of it”. Eastern New England also keeps “cot” and “caught” distinct while merging “father” and “bother”, an unusual combination in America.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
How to recognise a Boston accent
- Non-rhotic — “park the car” as “pahk the cah”.
- Intrusive R between vowels: “the idear of it”.
- A broad, fronted vowel in “park”, “aunt” and “half”.
- Local vocabulary: “bubbler” for a drinking fountain, “wicked” as an intensifier.
Also known as Boston accent, New England accent, Massachusetts accent, Pahk the cah. Spoken in Boston and eastern New England, United States.
The Boston pronunciation fingerprint
These are the answers the quiz expects from a Boston speaker on its 14 pronunciation questions. Where a feature varies within the region, more than one answer counts as a match.
“bath” takes the short vowel of “cat” — no trap–bath split
The Trap–Bath Split: Does “Bath” Rhyme With “Cat” or “Father”?
non-rhotic — “car” ends in a vowel, with no R sound
“put” and “putt” have different vowels — the foot–strut split
a quick D-like tap in “bottle” — T-flapping, or a glottal stop in “bottle” — “bo’le”
“cot” and “caught” stay distinct
The Cot–Caught Merger: Do “Cot” and “Caught” Sound the Same?
“Mary”, “marry” and “merry” all sound different, or two of “Mary”, “marry” and “merry” match and one differs
the vowel in “day” glides
the vowel in “go” glides
a true TH at the start of “three”
the H in “house” is pronounced
yod-dropping — “tune” sounds like “toon”
“fur” and “fair” stay distinct
“beer” and “bear” stay distinct
“happy” ends on a long “-ee” — happy-tensing
Everyday words in Boston and eastern New England
Speakers with a Boston accent
Mark Wahlberg
Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Born and raised in Dorchester; this match uses the classic eastern Massachusetts profile.
Accent profiles are anchored to primary-source regional recordings from the International Dialects of English Archive, not to any individual performance.
Is my accent Boston?
The only way to answer that against real data is to compare your own speech to the profile. The quiz takes about four minutes: answer 26 questions, pin the town where you grew up, and see your closest accent matches ranked by how well they fit — plus where people who answer like you actually live.