Singapore
The Singaporean accent
Singapore English runs from a standard close to British English through to Singlish, and the accent is shared across the range. It is strongly non-rhotic — coda R is dropped in over ninety per cent of conversational tokens — syllable-timed rather than stress-timed, and it merges “cot” with “caught” and the vowels of “kettle” and “cattle”. Both TH-stopping and TH-fronting are documented, so “three” can be “tree” and “teeth” can be “teef”.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
How to recognise a Singaporean accent
- Syllable-timed rhythm, giving each syllable roughly equal weight.
- Final consonants glottalised, so “eight” ends in a catch.
- Dark L at the end of a word turns into a vowel: “mail” as “meö”.
- Singlish vocabulary and particles: “kiasu”, “void deck”, “lah”.
Also known as Singaporean accent, Singapore English, Singlish, Singaporean English. Spoken in Singapore, Singapore.
The Singaporean pronunciation fingerprint
These are the answers the quiz expects from a Singaporean speaker on its 14 pronunciation questions. Where a feature varies within the region, more than one answer counts as a match.
“bath” takes the broad vowel of “father” — the 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
a clear T in the middle of “bottle”, or a glottal stop in “bottle” — “bo’le”
“cot” and “caught” rhyme — the cot–caught merger
The Cot–Caught Merger: Do “Cot” and “Caught” Sound the Same?
“Mary”, “marry” and “merry” all sound the same, or two of “Mary”, “marry” and “merry” match and one differs
“day” is one flat sound — deh
“go” is one flat sound — gaw
“tune” keeps its Y — “tyoon”
no — they sound different
one — “film”
“Film” or “Fillum”? The Helping Vowel in Highland and Irish English
no — they end in a vowel
a d-like sound — “dat”
“ship” and “sheep” share a vowel — the kit–fleece merger
Ship or Sheep? The Vowel That Divides Native and Learned English
“put” and “putt” have different vowels — the foot–strut split
TH-stopping — “three” sounds like “tree”, or TH-fronting — “three” sounds like “free”
the H in “house” is pronounced
“fur” and “fair” stay distinct
“beer” and “bear” stay distinct
“happy” ends on a long “-ee” — happy-tensing
“wine” and “vine” start with different sounds
“school” starts straight on the S
“bed” keeps its voiced ending, apart from “bet”
an approximant R, made without contact
Everyday words in Singapore
Speakers with a Singaporean accent
Joseph Schooling
Singapore
A Singapore English reference profile; Schooling was born and raised in Singapore.
Fandi Ahmad
Singapore
A Singapore English reference profile; Fandi was born and raised in Singapore.
Accent profiles are anchored to primary-source regional recordings from the International Dialects of English Archive, not to any individual performance.
Is my accent Singaporean?
The only way to answer that against real data is to compare your own speech to the profile. The quiz takes about two minutes: answer 28 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.