How do you get better at understanding Indian English accents?
Listen to whole sentences, and know what may differ from the American or British English you studied. Many speakers curl the tongue further back for t and d, use one sound for v and w, and give syllables a more even beat, so the stress you're listening for may fall elsewhere. When it matters, check rather than guess: Could you say the number slowly, digit by digit? and Let me read it back to you. There's no single Indian accent: it varies with region and first language, so expect each colleague to sound different.
What should you listen for?
These are tendencies from published descriptions of Indian English, not rules: plenty of speakers do only some of them, and how far they go depends on the person. Compare the US and IN buttons below. The AI voices give a moderate example and a single word may show only a small difference; real colleagues vary more.
| Word | What to listen for | Listen: US / UK / AU / IN |
|---|---|---|
| today | T and D: often retroflex, with the tongue curled further back, especially in the north of India. Also try “data” and “deadline”. | |
| video | V and W: many speakers use one sound between the two, so “wet” and “vet” can sound the same. Researchers disagree on how complete this is. Also try “work”. | |
| think | TH: often a dental t or d sound, with the tongue at the teeth, so “thing” can sound close to “ting”. | |
| late | The vowels in “late” and “go”: some speakers use one long vowel where American English glides between two. | |
| development | Rhythm and stress: syllables tend to get a more even beat, and unstressed vowels keep more of their spelling sound. | |
| quarter | R after a vowel: some speakers pronounce it and some don't. This varies by region. |
Sources: Wikipedia's article on Indian English and, on v and w, Fuchs (ICPhS 2019). The voices are AI-generated, for practice only.
How does it sound in real sentences?
Single words only go so far. In speech, the difficulty is usually speed, rhythm and numbers. Here are lines from Before You Speak scenes, spoken by AI voices with an Indian accent. Try listening first without reading.
| Line | Who and where | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| Not great, to be honest. The morning sickness is brutal, and it's not just mornings. She can barely keep anything down. | Arjun, office pantry | |
| Priya's mum is flying in for the first couple of months. After that, honestly, we're on the fence. Nanny or daycare, it's a lot to take in. | Arjun, office pantry | |
| So the total comes to seven thousand and fifty-six dirhams, including VAT. Shall we go ahead with everything? | Ravi, garage service desk | |
| And labour is three thousand seven hundred and fifty. That covers everything, about two working days. | Ravi, garage service desk | |
| Yes, yes, exactly, equal split. And the total is six-thousand pieces, three-three, done! Fiona wants it fixed today. | Rajesh, phone call from Mumbai | |
| Raises above your salary band need sign-off from finance. The next chance is the mid-year review, in six months. | Priya, annual review |
The voices are AI-generated, for practice only.
Which words and numbers can throw you?
Sometimes it isn't the accent at all, but a word used differently. These are from Wikipedia's article on Indian English. You won't hear them from everyone, and some are more common in writing.
| You may hear | It means |
|---|---|
| prepone | To move something to an earlier date or time (the opposite of postpone) |
| do the needful | To do what's necessary, trusting the other person to know what that is |
| revert | To report back with information, for example in an email |
| out of station | Away, for example not in the office city |
| pass out | To graduate from a school or college, not to faint |
| one lakh | 100,000, often written 1,00,000 |
| one crore | 10,000,000, often written 1,00,00,000 |
| … na? | In north India, a tag at the end of a sentence meaning “isn't it?” |
What does catching a number sound like?
Example: you're calling a buyer in Mumbai to confirm an order for 500 ml steel bottles. Rajesh, the purchasing officer, is friendly but talks fast and runs numbers together. Fiona, his British manager, wants it settled today. Hear the whole call.
Hello, hello! Rajesh here. Very good timing. Fiona, my manager, is also on the line from our Mumbai office.
Hi there. Good to finally hear your voice. I've got about twenty minutes, so shall we get straight into it?
Sure. Hi Rajesh, hi Fiona. Today I'd like to confirm the specs and quantity for the steel bottle order.
Perfect! So, the five-hundred-ml model, stainless steel, black and white. Our customer loves both colours, okay?
Okay, just to confirm: the 500 ml model, in black and white. Is that half and half?
Read it backYes, yes, exactly, equal split. And the total is six-thousand pieces, three-three, done! Fiona wants it fixed today.
Sorry, the line broke up a bit. Could you say the quantity again? Is that six thousand, not sixteen thousand?
Check the numberSorry, sorry, my team says I talk too fast! Six. Six thousand pieces in total.
So three thousand black, three thousand white.
Source: the Order confirmation call scene in Before You Speak. The people and the order are made up. “Three-three” means 3,000 of each colour. Fiona's last line is shortened.
How do you check what you heard?
Reading it back is the most useful habit on this page. Here it is at three levels. Clear is a short sentence that gets you understood, Natural is what a colleague would actually say, and Compact packs in more while still sounding spoken.
Repeating the details back
- ClearOkay. So it's the 500 ml model, in black and white. Is it half and half?
- NaturalOkay, just to confirm: the 500 ml model, in black and white. Is that half and half?
- CompactGot it, so just to confirm: the 500 ml model in black and white. Are we doing half and half between the two colours?
You didn't catch the number
- ClearSorry, I didn't hear the number. Could you say it again? Is it six thousand, not sixteen thousand?
- NaturalSorry, the line broke up a bit. Could you say the quantity again? Is that six thousand, not sixteen thousand?
- CompactSorry, the line broke up on the quantity. Could you say it again slowly? Six thousand, as in six-zero-zero-zero, not sixteen thousand?
Reading back the packing
- ClearSure. Each bottle has a colour box. There are 24 to a carton. Your logo is on the outer cartons.
- NaturalSure. Each bottle is individually packed in a colour box, 24 to a carton, with your logo on the outer cartons.
- CompactSure. Each bottle's individually packed in a colour box, 24 to a carton, with your logo printed on the outer cartons. Is that right?
All three versions are the lines the scene prepares for that turn.
What do you say when you didn't catch it?
You don't have to catch everything first time. You do need a line ready for when you don't.
| When | Say |
|---|---|
| You missed a sentence | Sorry, could you say that again? |
| It went too fast | Sorry, could you go through that again, a bit slower? |
| You missed a number | Could you say the number slowly, digit by digit? |
| You think you heard it | Let me read it back to you. |
| You need to write it down | Give me a second, I'm writing it down. |
| The line is bad | Sorry, the line isn't very clear. Could you say that again? |
| You heard the word but don't know it | Sorry, what do you mean by …? |
| It matters and you want it recorded | Could you put that in the quote? |
Which slips get in the way?
Most of these are about what you do when you miss something, and how it lands with the other person. They're from the slip warnings and notes in Before You Speak.
| Easy to say | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| ✗ Nodding and hoping you heard the number | ✓ Okay, just to confirm: the 500 ml model, in black and white. | A wrong number costs more than a moment of asking. Say what you heard and let them correct it. |
| ✗ Your accent is hard for me. | ✓ Sorry, the line broke up a bit. | Gives you both an easy way out, and doesn't make it about how they speak. |
| ✗ What? / Again? | ✓ Sorry, could you say that again? | One word sounds sharp. The longer version takes a second more. |
| ✗ Could you repeat again? | ✓ Could you say that again? | “Repeat” already means “again”. |
| ✗ My English is not good… | ✓ Sorry, what do you mean by …? | Ask about the word you missed. There's no need to apologise first. |
| ✗ Sixty? Sorry, sixty? | ✓ Is that six thousand, not sixteen thousand? | “Sixteen” and “sixty” are easy to confuse in any accent. Offer the two options and let them pick. |
| ✗ What's mean “prepone”? | ✓ What does “prepone” mean? | A common word-order slip when asking about a word. |
| ✗ Only ever practising with American recordings | ✓ Practising with voices like your colleagues' | You get used to what you listen to. Your colleagues may not sound like your textbook. |
How do you practise with Indian accents?
Podcasts and films help you get used to the sound, and colleagues are the real thing, if you can ask them to repeat without feeling awkward. What's harder to find is practice where you also have to answer. At the time of writing, 60 of the 299 scenes in Before You Speak have a character with an Indian accent, across work and daily life.
Good ones to start with:
- Office pantry: Arjun is going to be a dad: small talk with an Indian and an Italian colleague. Practise it
- Garage: reading the quote and negotiating: lots of numbers, with an Indian and an Arabic accent. Practise it
- Order confirmation call with a Mumbai buyer: fast numbers on the phone. Practise it
- Sprint planning: payments before coupons: with an Indian engineering lead. Practise it
- Mid-year 1:1: closing a gap and agreeing targets: with an Indian data analyst on the call. Practise it
- Clinic visit: checking in and describing symptoms: with an Indian doctor in Dubai. Practise it
The scene pages are in Chinese with the full English script alongside, and every line has a recording. You can read and listen without signing up. All characters, lines and voices are AI-generated, for practice only.
Listening is only half of it; you also have to reply before they move on. In Before You Speak (开口前 kaikouqian), two AI colleagues with real accents talk and you can cut in at any time; when it's your turn, they stop and wait for you. Afterwards you get at most two corrections, they go into your review book, and in review a colleague says the original line again and you answer. You can also write your own situation in Chinese (what it's about, who it's with, what you want to say, the facts only you know) and get a practice scene in two or three minutes.
Free sign-up, no card. The free plan has two live AI conversation rounds and three scripted sessions a week; your own scenes come with a 7-day free trial, and nothing is charged when it ends. For people living outside mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. The app explains in Chinese; Chrome on a computer works best.
Which guides go with this one?
- Speaking up in meetings: How to get in when nobody leaves a gap, ask about what you missed, buy time and confirm the next step.
- A 1:1 with your manager: What to cover in a 1:1: an update, bad news early, asking for help, your growth and next steps.
- Standup updates: What you finished, what's next, what's blocking you, and how to say a date is at risk, in a few short sentences.
- All guides
How was this page written?
- Author
- The maker of Before You Speak, a Chinese engineer working in English in Abu Dhabi.
- Sources
- Pronunciation and vocabulary notes: Wikipedia's article on Indian English (read on 1 November 2026; some of its claims about how common each feature is are marked as needing citations) and, on v and w, Fuchs (ICPhS 2019). Dialogue, recordings and rescue lines: Before You Speak scenes (Office pantry, Garage, Order confirmation call, Annual review) and its When You Don't Understand unit. The people and orders are made up.
- Use of AI
- The characters, lines and voices in the scenes are AI-generated, so they are an example of an Indian English accent, not a recording of a real speaker. The explanations on this page were drafted with AI and put together by the author, who is not a linguist.
- Updates
- First published 2026-11-01. Found a mistake or want to add something? Write to hello@kaikouqian.com.