IELTS Pronunciation Guide: How Accent Affects Your Band Score
6/23/2026
A common misconception: examiners do not penalise non-native accents. An Indian, Filipino, or Nepali accent does not cost you marks. What matters is whether your speech is easy to understand.
The 5 pronunciation features examiners assess
1. Word stress English words have a stressed syllable: 'PHOtograph' not 'photoGRAPH'. Stressing the wrong syllable is the most common cause of miscommunication. Practise 10 new words per day and mark the stress.
2. Sentence stress In natural English, content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) are stressed; function words (the, is, of) are reduced. 'I WANT to LEARN to SPEAK BETTER' — not every word equal.
3. Connected speech Native speakers link words: 'Did you eat?' sounds like 'Dijeet?' This is not sloppy — it is natural. Practise linking final consonants to opening vowels.
4. Intonation Rising intonation for yes/no questions, falling for statements. A flat intonation sounds robotic and scores Band 6.
5. Range Can you use wide intonation to show enthusiasm? Can you reduce to a near-whisper for emphasis? Range signals fluency.
How to train pronunciation Shadowing: find a YouTube video with a clear English speaker, pause every sentence, and repeat with the same stress and rhythm. Do this for 10 minutes daily.