Your accent is not what lowers the score
Speaking tests measure how easily a listener understands you, not how native you sound. A clear Arabic accent is compatible with the top bands.
The two missing consonants: p and v
Arabic has no /p/ and no /v/. English has both, and both appear constantly. Without them, /p/ becomes /b/ and /v/ becomes /f/ — and English has real word pairs that depend on exactly that difference.
| You may say | You mean | The listener hears |
|---|---|---|
| bark | park | a different word |
| big | pig | a different word |
| bee | pea | a different word |
| ferry | very | a different word |
| fan | van | a different word |
Practise them in minimal pairs — pat / bat, van / fan — until a listener can tell them apart from your voice alone. This is the highest-value pair of sounds on the page.
Three vowels against twelve
Arabic works with three vowel qualities, long and short. English has around twelve, several of which sit inside the space of a single Arabic vowel. So English word pairs collapse together, and the listener genuinely hears a different word.
| English pair | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|
| /ɪ/ vs /i:/ | Both land on Arabic i. | ship / sheep, bit / beat |
| /e/ vs /æ/ | Both land near Arabic a. | bed / bad, men / man |
| /ʊ/ vs /uː/ | Both land on Arabic u. | full / fool, pull / pool |
| /ɒ/ vs /ɔː/ | No clear equivalent. | cot / caught |
| /ə/ (schwa) | English reduces unstressed vowels; Arabic keeps them fuller. | banana said with three clear vowels is harder to follow |
The vowels are where most of the marks are. They are less obvious than /p/ and /v/, but they change more words.
Extra vowels inside clusters
Arabic does not stack consonants the way English does, so a short vowel tends to appear inside the cluster to break it up.
- plastic → bi-lastic
- school → is-chool
- street → is-treet
- next → nex-it
Say the consonants with nothing between them, slowly at first, then at speed. Slow and correct is worth more than fast and padded — speed is not scored.
Other contrasts worth knowing
| Sound | Why it's hard | What a listener may hear |
|---|---|---|
| /ŋ/ at the end | Not a final sound in Arabic. | sing → sin or sing-g |
| /tʃ/ | Missing in several varieties. | chair → share |
| /ʒ/ | Rare. | measure, vision are approximated |
Not on the list: your intonation, your rhythm, or the general sound of your accent. Those identify you as an Arabic speaker and do not stop anyone understanding you.
How to practise
- Record yourself. While speaking you hear what you intended, not what you produced.
- Week one: /p/ and /v/. They are quick wins and they change real words. Use the paper test for /p/ and the teeth-on-lip test for /v/.
- Then the vowel pairs. These are where most of the marks are. Work with minimal pairs until someone else can tell them apart.
- Practise in sentences. A sound you can produce alone but lose in a sentence is not learned yet.
Aflo scores your speech sound by sound and shows you which sounds were hardest to catch.
For the test, and for real life
For the exam: get /p/ and /v/, separate the vowel pairs, and stop breaking up clusters with an extra vowel. That is most of the score.
Outside the exam you may want to sound more American or more British, for work or for yourself. That is a reasonable goal and a separate one from scoring well. Clarity is what the test pays for; the accent can stay.
Frequently asked questions
Will my Arabic accent lower my speaking score?
No. These tests score intelligibility rather than native-likeness, and Aflo's pronunciation scoring has a floor so that differences which are only accent stop affecting the score. What lowers a score is the sounds Arabic does not have, and English vowel pairs collapsing into one.
What should I fix first?
/p/ and /v/. Arabic has neither, so /p/ becomes /b/ and /v/ becomes /f/ — and English has real word pairs that turn on exactly that difference (park/bark, van/fan). They are quick to fix and they change whole words.
Why are English vowels so hard?
Arabic works with three vowel qualities; English has around twelve, and several sit inside the space of one Arabic vowel. So ship and sheep, bed and bad, full and fool collapse into a single sound. This is less obvious than the missing consonants but it changes more words, so it is where most of the marks are.
How do I know which sounds to work on?
Record yourself and get an external check — you cannot judge your own pronunciation while producing it. Aflo compares your speech with the expected pronunciation one sound at a time and reports the sounds a listener was most likely to miss.