Curious which American accent you speak with? Here are three online quizzes that identify regional dialects based on pronunciation and vocabulary. We tested a dozen dialect quizzes to find the ones that provide the clearest, most reliable feedback. One of them even pinpointed the correct state.
Not every test was useful. A couple gave odd or irrelevant results—one guessed I was British, another described my voice as “high-pitched,” which isn’t a regional dialect and can’t be determined from written responses. We removed those from consideration. The three quizzes below are fast, easy to use, require no downloads or apps, and most are free.
Babbel’s Dialect Quiz
Language-learning platform Babbel offers a straightforward American Dialect Quiz on its website. The 15-question quiz is free, requires no account, and asks about both pronunciation (for example, “how do you pronounce ‘lawyer’?”) and regional vocabulary (for example, “do you call a carbonated drink soda, pop, or coke?”).
The results assign you to a general U.S. region. In our tests the outcomes were broadly accurate but sometimes too general. I grew up in Virginia and was labeled “The South,” though my Southern features are mild. A colleague from New Jersey received “The Northeast.” Both are correct at a high level, but the quiz doesn’t always capture finer regional distinctions (for instance, Boston versus Brooklyn).
GoToQuiz’s What American Accent Do You Have?
GoToQuiz hosts a simple 13-question accent quiz that focuses heavily on vowel contrasts—pairs like pin versus pen, caught versus cot, and the merry/mary/marry distinctions. The site’s design is dated and the page contains many ads, some styled to look like part of the quiz, so be careful to click only the quiz controls and the final “Submit Answers.”
Our GoToQuiz outcomes were mixed. I received a “Midland” result, described as a relatively neutral accent. That fits my Washington, D.C. area background, but the quiz doesn’t explicitly map results to that specific region. One highlight of this test is a bar-chart-style visualization that presents your mix of regional influences—useful because many people speak with blended dialect features.
NYT U.S. Dialect Quiz
Our top pick for depth and accuracy is The New York Times’ U.S. Dialect Quiz. It contains 25 questions and, after each answer, shows a colored heatmap indicating where that choice is most common across the United States. The final map gives a clear geographic picture of your speech patterns. The interactive test may be behind a subscriber paywall, but its level of detail makes it worth trying if you want an in-depth result.
In our trials the NYT quiz was impressively accurate. The heatmaps for each person closely matched the regions where we grew up, and the three cities the quiz highlighted for each respondent nearly triangulated our origins. The quiz also adapts as you take it—later questions can differ based on earlier responses, improving precision.
Beyond maps, the NYT quiz explains which answers most strongly influenced your result. For example, one of my most revealing answers was calling a drive-through liquor store a “Brew Thru,” a name tied to a specific chain in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For my colleague, the phrase “Mischief Night” (the night before Halloween) was a regional giveaway. These kinds of local terms can be surprisingly telling.
Note: the maps shown above reflect our 2026 retake of the quiz; we originally discussed this test back in 2013.
Our Favorite Accent Tests: A Summary
All three quizzes are quick and enjoyable to take. We recommend trying each one to compare results. Here’s a concise comparison based on our experience:
- New York Times US Dialect Quiz: The most accurate and detailed option. It provides adaptive questions and clear regional heatmaps, but may require a subscriber account. Choose this quiz if you want the most insight into how your dialect compares to different parts of the country.
- Babbel American Dialect Quiz: Clean, free, and easy to complete. Results are broad but a fast way to see which general region your accent aligns with.
- GoToQuiz American Accent Test: Quick and focused on vowel distinctions, with a visual breakdown of regional influences. It’s less polished and can be less precise, but still fun and informative.
Try all three and compare their maps and summaries—many people discover they speak with a blend of regional features rather than a single, uniform accent.