Expert-Backed Ways to Improve Your Speech Clarity

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Easy vocal warmups & exercises to help you speak clearly

Co-authored by Lynn Kirkham and Jennifer Mueller, JD

Last Updated: June 30, 2024 Fact Checked

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Improving Your Enunciation

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Speaking More Slowly

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Building Your Speaking Muscles

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Expert Q&A

Do you find that you mumble a lot? Are people constantly telling you to speak up or that they can't understand you? Improving your clarity of speech can help. Whether you speak in public on a regular basis or just want to be better understood by the people around you, we've got some techniques that can help. We talked to improvisation coach Dan Klein and public speaking coach Lynn Kirkham to find out what you can do to improve your clarity of speech so you're better understood.

Improving Your Speech Clarity & Diction

Use tongue-twister warmups like "red leather, yellow leather" to help you articulate the words that you say more clearly. When you say them repeatedly and quickly, you strengthen your tongue and make its movements more precise. Slow down and control your breathing to help you speak more clearly.

Section 1 of 3:

Improving Your Enunciation

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1
Warm your mouth up with tongue twisters. Start off by saying the tongue twister slowly, exaggerating the sounds and pronouncing every consonant distinctly. Gradually speed up until you can say them smoothly at a normal speaking speed (or even faster!). Here are some you can try:^{[1]
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- You know New York, you need New York, you know you need you unique New York
- Red leather, yellow leather
- While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington's windows with warm washing water
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Record yourself reading aloud to find spots where you stumble. You could read a book, an online news article, or even this article. Doing this will help you become more familiar with how you sound when you speak. If certain sounds are causing you to slur or stutter, you'll hear them when you play back your recording. This tells you what specific sounds you need to practice more.^{[2]
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- Take note of the sounds, and combinations of sounds, that seem to be tripping you up the most. Then, you might find tongue twisters that feature those sounds to strengthen your ability to pronounce them.
- If you're someone who cringes when you hear a recording of your voice, this will also help you become more comfortable with how your voice sounds.
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Speak with a cork, pencil, or other object in your mouth. Having to speak around something in your mouth strengthens your speaking muscles and keeps your tongue from tripping you up on certain sounds. Simply hold the object between your teeth as you speak aloud. Focus on enunciating every vowel and consonant clearly and cleanly.^{[3]
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- This exercise can tire your jaw, so stop when it starts to feel sore.
- You may also want to have a napkin with you as you produce a lot of saliva with this exercise.
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Vary your tone and pitch to fit your emotions. Your tone of voice affects how you pronounce some words as well as how people understand them. For ideal clarity of speech, make sure that your tone, pitch, and volume are all in alignment with the emotion you're trying to convey through your speech.^{[4]
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- For example, if you're giving a speech that is supposed to excite people, they might not understand that if you're speaking in a monotone or disinterested tone.
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Repeat tough words to build muscle memory. If there are particular sound combinations that always seem to trip you up, repetition can help! The truth is, pronouncing a word is no different from any other activity, like swimming—it takes practice to build up the muscle memory to pronounce it correctly every time.^{[5]
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- Often, when a particular word or sound is tripping you up, it's just because you don't say it very often. This is especially true if you're saying words that aren't in your native language.

Section 2 of 3:

Speaking More Slowly

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1
Say each word deliberately. While you don't want to speak so slowly that you sound like a robot, you do want to speak slowly enough that your words don't blend together. When you finish each word completely before starting the next one, you create enough space between the words that everyone can understand you properly.^{[6]
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- Continually monitor your speech as you talk. If you feel like you're starting to speed up, pause and take a deep breath. Say, "I'm sorry, I feel like I'm going a mile a minute. Let me slow down." Then, pick up where you left off.
- Kirkham notes that this is especially important "if you're not speaking your native language, then [people] might not be able to understand you so you've got to make sure that you're pacing it so that they can understand you."
- If you have trouble slowing down, try reading poetry aloud! It can really help you get a handle on reading at a slower, more rhythmic pace.^{[7]
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Breathe from your diaphragm and speak at the top of your breath. Put one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest as you breathe. When you inhale, expand your belly so that the hand on your belly rises relative to the hand on your chest. Breathing this way allows you to speak with a full voice—and if you start speaking immediately after you've finished inhaling, you'll have lots of air in your lungs so you can get your statement out before you need to breathe again.^{[8]
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- Dan Klein agrees that if you're trying to practice clear and confident speech, "a lot of things... have to do with breath."
- Kirkham notes that if you "forget to breathe or start panicking inside," you can easily "end up speaking way too fast."
- If breathing this way doesn't feel natural to you, give it some practice. Breathing higher up from your chest will only increase your heart rate and make you more anxious, which likely won't help your speech clarity.^{[9]
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Pause to get your words together before you start talking. Whether you're giving a public speech or just having a casual conversation with a friend, take a moment before speaking to think about what you are going to say. You'll speak with a lot more clarity when you aren't hemming and hawing trying to figure out what you want to say or how you want to say it.^{[10]
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- Clarity isn't just about pronouncing words properly, it's also about getting your message or point of view out as precisely as possible. If you know what you want to say, you don't have to backtrack or use fillers such as "um," "like," or "uh," while you try to think of what to say.
- While you're paused, take a moment to swallow any excess saliva left in your mouth, which can result in mumbling and distortion of your speech, especially around consonants such as "s" or "k."
Oprah Winfrey, Entertainment Mogul

Be intentional with your message. "What’s the most important message you want to leave your audience with—and why should they care?"
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Practice a prepared speech while walking around. If you have to speak publicly or are giving a presentation of some kind, take it to a treadmill or nearby park and walk it out, using one footstep per word.^{[11]
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- This may seem slow and arduous and first, but it will help you slow down and enunciate clearly. This exercise can also help you find the internal rhythm of the speech, which will definitely help you communicate more clearly.

Section 3 of 3:

Building Your Speaking Muscles

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1
Exercise your jaw, lips, and tongue. Open your mouth as wide as possible while moving your jaw in circles and sideways. Open and shut your mouth widely several times for some more stretches. Then, make some buzzing sounds with your lips while taking care not to clench your jaw.^{[12]
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- If you find yourself clenching your jaw while you speak, practice some vocal warmups, then take a deep breath. As you exhale, let the air puff your cheeks out, then release the air slowly, as though you're letting the air out of a balloon. This will help you naturally relax your jaw.
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Sit or stand with good posture to engage your diaphragm. You can speak with a fuller voice if your shoulders are back and your chest is open. Maintaining good posture also helps you breathe more deeply and more efficiently, which helps you stay calm and enhances the clarity of your speech.^{[13]
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- Kirkham notes that "not standing strong, not having strong body posture" is something that can be really irritating to people you're talking to, causing them to lose focus on what you're saying.
- Pay attention to body language as well. Klein notes that "sometimes gestures can override the words themselves. If your gestures are not aligned with the words that you're saying, then the audience will sense that."
EXPERT TIP

Stephanie Jeret
Speech-Language Pathologist
Stephanie Jeret is a Speech-Language Pathologist based in Northeastern Illinois. She works with children who stutter, have receptive/expressive language difficulties, and have articulation disorders/delays. She also works with adults who present with dysarthria, apraxia, aphasia, executive function disorder, and stuttering. She is certified by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) and received their ACE Award for excellence in continuing education. She is also PROMPT Bridge Trained, Lidcombe Trained, and Lee Silverman Voice Therapy Certified. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College and a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Brooklyn College.

Stephanie Jeret
Speech-Language Pathologist

Use a mirror to check mouth positioning and help articulate sounds clearly. Using a mirror during speech therapy lets you check your mouth's positioning, which can help with articulation disorders. For lisps, you can see if your tongue is in the right spot. For "b" sounds, you can check your lips are closed. Seeing yourself helps make sure you're accurately saying sounds, improving clarity.
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Warm up your vocal chords before speaking aloud. When you do vocal warmups, you prepare your vocal chords so that they can perform clearly. While vocal warmups are most associated with singing, they'll help you even if you're just giving a speech or presentation and want to improve your vocal quality.^{[14]
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- Say the vowel sounds combined with any consonant. You could also repeat all of the vowel sounds with every consonant letter for a complete warm-up. Just focus on keeping the vowel sound exactly the same regardless of which consonant sound you're making in front of it.
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Drink plenty of water to stay well-hydrated. It's no secret that you'll have a hard time enunciating and being understood if your mouth is dry. But hydration is super important for your throat and vocal chords as well. Staying consistently well-hydrated ensures that your voice will always sound its best.^{[15]
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- Vocal chords are like a machine that needs to stay well lubricated. Gargle some lukewarm water with a pinch of salt before you speak to keep them limber and help relieve tension in the throat.
- Hum and pat your chest as well. This can help knock out any phlegm you might have.

Expert Q&A

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Question

How can I sharpen my speech?

Patrick Muñoz
Voice & Speech Coach
Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

Patrick Muñoz

Voice & Speech Coach

Expert Answer

Be aware of your breath when you're talking. Controlling your breathing can fix issues like mumbling. Make sure you're breathing in and letting your breath flow out.

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Question

How can I speak more clearly if I have a lisp?

Devin Fisher, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
Devin Fisher is a Speech-Language Pathologist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Devin specializes in speech and language therapy for individuals with aphasia, swallowing, voice, articulation, phonological social-pragmatic, motor speech, and fluency disorders. Furthermore, Devin treats cognitive-communication impairment, language delay, and Parkinson's Disease. He holds a BS and MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Fontbonne University. Devin also runs a related website and blog that offers speech-language therapy resources and information for clinicians and clients.

Devin Fisher, CCC-SLP

Speech Language Pathologist

Expert Answer

The big thing is looking at your oral motor and the function of the mouth and making sure that the positioning is appropriate. It's a little harder when it's a very specific sound like ‘S’ because you have to also look at how the tongue is being placed. Each sound that we make is done in a certain way with certain positioning. Some sounds can be made in multiple ways. However, if you aren't placing these things appropriately, what we call our articulators – your tongue, your lips, your mouth, even your teeth, and different things within the oral cavity – you in turn can get some sounds that might not sound appropriate or might sound atypical, and that's how lisping comes about. Speaking more clearly takes a lot of repeated practice. It's modeling. Using a mirror as a reference point is helpful. There are some good applications out there that can give that imagery of somebody producing an ‘S’ in a way that is more effective or appropriate and tends to reduce that lisping. Of course, the best thing to do if it's going on for a longer period of time and past the point of what is typical, is to seek out services from a speech therapist.

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Question

How do you talk with clarity?

Patrick Muñoz
Voice & Speech Coach
Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

Patrick Muñoz

Voice & Speech Coach

Expert Answer

If you need to give a speech in public, edit it so that it is very clear and to the point. Make sure your speech is short, specific, and useful. Then, rehearse it in a variety of ways. For instance, practice your speech by saying it out loud and recording yourself. Practice speaking slowly and clearly and listen to yourself objectively. Read your speech in front of a mirror. Sing your speech like one of your favorite songs. Read your speech while jumping around.

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