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May 2, 2020 4 min

Understanding the
Indian English Accent
Updated: Jul 2, 2020

“If some of you detect an

accent, please remember
that I didn’t have one until I
came to this country.”
SK Gupta, Indian American executive at Sandia
National Laboratories

Do you have an Indian colleague or customer

who you find hard to understand? Have you ever
called tech support and couldn't understand the
directions because of the accent?

Then read on! There are things you can do to

help.

The first thing to know is that there are 130 million

Indian English speakers with a variety of accents
in India and scattered all over the world. That's

more than in the UK. English is one of 22 official

languages of India and many Indians grow up
speaking several languages, English being one of
them. Indian accents may be different from the
ones you're used to but they are as valid an
ones you re used to, but they are as valid an
Join us
English accent on Hollywood,
as RP, the appor Aussie. It's
different, sure, the same way my California/Texan
accent is different from the Queen of England's,
but it is a native speaking English accent, same as
Her Royal Highness'.

Nevertheless, I've heard many of my students say

that the Indian English accent is a hard one to
understand. I've also heard this of the Irish,
Scottish, Nigerian, Cockney, Glaswegian,
Jamaican... There are a lot of native English
accents in the world. There are also a lot of Indian
English speakers and it's quite a bit more likely
that you'll have Indian colleagues, customers, or
clients rather than a Glaswegian.

So how can you overcome the difficulties?

Do the needful!

1. Listen
Indian English may sound fast, but it's really not
faster than a good New York accent. The
difference is that the most prevalent accents in
media are American and RP British so you're used
to those accents. So get used to an Indian accent!
Befriend your Indian colleagues and listen to
them. Watch Bollywood movies, get involved in a
good Indian TV series, listen to the news from an
Indian source such as NDTV. Turn on the subtitles
if you need to until you don't need them anymore.

2. Understand Indian English

Pronunciation Patterns
Learning the differences in pronunciation can
help you understand the accent better. Here are
the biggest differences.

The very biggest difference in

pronunciation is the stress pattern. English
words carry their stress on a particular
syllable--it's pronounced longer, higher,
and louder Intelligent is /in TELL i gent/
 and louder. Intelligent is /in-TELL-i-gent/.
Join English
Indian us on doesn't
the app do this.
usually
Instead, every syllable has the same
stress. I find that a lot of my English
language learning students do this, too.

This stress pattern also happens in

sentences. I *want* to go to the store and I
want to go to the *store* emphasize
difference words and therefore it changes
the meaning of this sentence. Indian
English usually doesn't do this.

Generally, Indian English speakers

pronounce words as they are spelled.
English doesn't have phonetic spelling, so
this can lead to big differences in the way
words are pronounced.

Indians have a sing-song quality in

English, resulting from the rhythmic
influence of many of the languages
spoken in India.

V and W are often pronounced the same,

so vet and wet sound alike.

The TH is pronounced as a T or D or even

as their थ sound, which is similar but
slightly different than in English.

3. Hinglish
Ever heard of Spanglish, Czechlish, or Franglais?
There is also Hinglish, which is a hybridization of
Hindi and English. I love these hybrids! They
leads to new vocabulary, collocation differences,
and idioms that are heavily influenced by a
person's native language. Some of them are
perfect and I say "do the needful" all the time
now. Some of them can lead to
miscommunication, though. For example, "I was

fired" can mean I was yelled at and not just I lost

my job.
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The best way to learn these differences is to,

again, befriend an Indian English speaker and
have them teach you. If you don't have the
opportunity, the Indian English Dictionary can be
a great help, and it is only one of many.

Some examples:

Vocabulary:

freeship– scholarship

prepone– advance ( move up a date)

revert– report back with information

at the rate– the @ sign

clubbing– to join two things together

come home – come over to my house

cover – envelope

Collocations

take leave – to ask for time off or to leave

a place

tight slap– a really hard slap

write an exam – to take an exam (not

create one)

according to me – in my opinion

pindrop silence – absolute silence

bed coffee – a cup of coffee as soon as

one gets up

native place – home town

 native place home town
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Old-fashioned words that are less common
elsewhere:

my missus – my wife

dickie – boot/ trunk

expire – die

Idioms:

Do the needful – do what's necessary

Any doubts? – Any questions?

Cut the call – hang up abruptly

Eating my brain – really bothering me

Mugging up – cramming, or memorizing

before an exam

Neck out – to push someone out of a

room by force

Got fired – either got yelled at or lost their

job

Sitting on his head – forcing someone to

do something

I will come just now – I will be back in a

minute

4. The grammar can be wrong

Some Indians really do learn English later in life
and their English can have the common mistakes
that other English language learners make. As
with all your friends and colleagues who aren’t
native English speakers, a little patience and
understanding goes a long way.

Have an Indian English

accent yourself?
If you work with non-Indian English speakers and
 y g p
are tired Join us on
of people the you toapp
asking repeat yourself,
there is one thing that you can do that will make a
tremendous difference in communicating.

Primary Stress

The very biggest difference in American/British

versus Indian English pronunciation is the stress
pattern. Most English accents carry their stress on
a particular syllable--it's pronounced longer,
higher, and louder.

intelligent /in-TELL-i-gent/
compromise /COM pru mise/
cooperate /ku WAH pur ate/
economy /e KON o mie/

Learn the stress pattern of multi-syllable words

and it will make a big difference.

Learn More:
The BIGGEST pronunciation mistake EVERYONE
makes in English

I offer:
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