What makes a non-native English speaker sound foreign?

Question

I'm not a native speaker. However, I have tried a lot during last 10 years to learn English at a high level of proficiency and to become fluent in conversation.

However, when I talk to some of my friends in US over Skype (found via my profession), they tell me that I talk like a foreigner. But they don't know why is that.

What is/are the reasons that can make a not-native English speaker sound like a foreigner? Is it about pronunciation, or about syntax, or is it maybe just a false assumption coming from a psychological background due to the fact that the other party knows that you are not an English man/woman.

Update: I asked this question specifically about English, since English is the most widespread language on the earth and tens of different dialects and millions of different idiolects seem to alleviate the problem of "sounding-foreign".

Answer 1

There are so many ways that a person's speech can indicate that he is not a native speaker of English (or that he is a speaker of English from certain region). Basically, accents happen when you are using non-English rules (can be phonetic, syntax, idiomatic, etc.) when speaking English. Many speakers do not realize that they are using rules from their own language that are not compatible with the rules of English, since they assume the rules to be true. Because non native speakers often don't notice this, it is very hard to fix unless they practice with a native speaker and have him/her correct them.

Some examples

• Phonemes. One's native language has a different set of phonemes than English, and some English phonemes are not available in one's language. For example, Japanese doesn't have the sound 'l' (they use something like an 'r' instead), French doesn't have 'th' (use 'z' or 's' instead) and a lot of English vowels are not available in French (so they merge them with the available vowels)

• Syllable pattern. For example, in Japanese a syllable can begin with at most one consonant and must end in a vowel, so they pronounce girlfriend as "garufurendo", etc.

• Pronunciation rules. For example, French don't pronounce the letter 'h', etc. Plus English is notorious for very unpredictable pronunciation rules, it is often hard for non native speakers to use the right pronunciation naturally.

• Intonation pattern. This is also hard to get right because it is unpredictable for non native speakers, other languages' pattern are often really different from English, and people often don't realize that they are speaking with a non native-like intonation pattern

• Syntax. For example, speakers of isolating languages tend to forget using the right inflection (plural, past tense, etc). After you learn for a while, you will not make such simple mistakes, but non native speakers often don't get the finer point of the syntax, like what hippietrail noticed

• Idioms

• Choice of words

There are many other ways you can do it "wrong", so the best suggestion is to speak with a native speaker who knows about these things and have him/her correct you.

Answer 2

Here are a few things in your English from your question that signal you as non-native for me:

1. *during last 10 years -> during the last 10 years
2. *some of my friends in US -> some of my friends in the US
3. *But they don't know why is that -> But they don't know why that is
4. *not-native English speaker -> non-native English speaker.

Many native English speakers might also do some of these at least as typos or thinking faster than they write, but not 3. and probably not 4. Taken together I would expect you were a foreigner. My first impression from 3. is that you might be a French speaker.

So even without pronunciation your syntax would give you away, as would any and all the many points where two languages can differ. (Vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, exceptions to rules, intonation, contractions, idioms, etc, etc)

(You seem to have excellent English by the way)

Answer 3

I've also heard about some research by Chilin Shih (but can't find it on her website) that suggests that highly proficient speakers of a second language don't do as much phonetic reduction as native speakers do. So to some native speakers, highly proficient L2 speakers sound like they're hyper-articulating a little.

Answer 4

I'm afraid I cannot cite sources, but I was once told that one key to sounding fluent is to make sure you practice getting the "fillers" correct - the umms and errs in English are quite different from French or Spanish fillers. Fillers are sometimes neglected and it is easy to relapse into a native filler when speaking a foreign language.

Answer 5

There are some phenomena at play here.

First, yourself. As others have mentioned, there are some markers that will undeniably identify a person as a foreign speaker, such as pronunciation. As children, we have the possibility of learning how to pronounce most consonants and vowels from most languages. Some sounds (the English th for example) are only mastered later. As we grow older, we lose that ability and remain "stuck" with a limited range of sounds we can reproduce, even when we learn a new language.

Secondly, your interlocutors. While all the words you use can be English, and your structure can be the correct grammar, there are levels of formality in every language which second language speakers do not always master. This is where sociolinguistics step in. There is a "known social norm" for speech in certain situations, and native speakers are keen to those, albeit unconsciously. It is not bound by fixed lexical or grammatical rules, it's hardly quantifiable, but it exists, native speakers have a "culture of speech" that is part of language and yet cannot be taught directly.

I get it too. I'm a foreign speaker myself, and people tell me I talk too formally. Even when I try and play it down it's still there.

Answer 6

I work with a large number of non-native English speakers, and probably the biggest indicator of fluency for me is the use of articles (a, an, the), which is what Hippie Trail's answer covers.

This is entirely observational, I do not have research to support my findings.

1. Definite articles ("the") are missing. I think this is because in many languages, definite articles communicate an extra level of meaning, or maybe have more defined rules for usage. In English, It's easy to know that you must use "the" with a superlative ("The fastest"), but it's hard to figure when to use it with a proper noun ("The United States"). Especially when other languages have more rigid rules about article usage with proper nouns.
2. Indefinite articles ("a", "an") are missing. I suspect this is because in many languages the indefinite article can be assumed.
3. Articles instead of determiners on mass nouns . I recognize this a great deal in American vs. British English: "a cup of coffee" vs."a coffee". American English doesn't allow you to say, "I need a coffee". We say, "I need a cup of coffee" or "I need some coffee".

Here's my response again, but, with the articles modified:

I work with large number of non-native English speakers, and probably biggest indicator of fluency for me is use of articles (a, an, the), which is what Hippie Trail's answer covers.

This is entirely observational, I do not have some research to support my findings:

1. Definite articles ("the") are missing. I think this is because in many languages, definite articles communicate extra level of meaning, or maybe have more defined rules for usage: In English, It's easy to know that you must use "the" with superlative ("The fastest"), but it's hard to figure when to use it with proper nouns ("The United States"). Especially when other languages have more rigid rules about article usage with some proper nouns.
2. Indefinite articles ("a", "an") are missing. I suspect this is because in many languages, indefinite article can be assumed.
3. Articles instead of determiners on mass nouns . I recognize this great deal in American vs. British English: "a cup of coffee" vs."a coffee". American English doesn't allow you to say, "I need a coffee". We say, "I need a cup of coffee" or "I need some coffee".

See? Sounds more...non-native.

Everyone else here has offered a ton of great answers, and I agree with them whole-heartedly. I think a fascinating area of research would be determining native language by misuse of articles in English.

Answer 7

I think the biggest hurdle on the way to getting taken for a native speaker is intonation. That's the hardest part. You can have a big vocabulary; you can learn that from books easily. You pronounce each and every single word correctly (in isolation). Also easily to be learned from books (every dictionary has the proper pronounciation listed... at least for the difficult or unusual words).

And still, if your intonation is wrong, it's a dead giveaway. And most native speakers would probably not be able to say what made you sound foreign, since all you pronounce all the words correctly. (Okay, I'm assuming this from your description)

How can you learn intonation? Not from books. Only from listening (a lot), and then practicing what you heard.

Answer 8

This touches me on a personal level for I've tried hard my whole life to get rid of my accent, only to be told time and again I still have a strong Hispanic accent. I've learned a few interesting things on the road, though:

• Rhythm. Syllables of Spanish are all more or less same length and at a semi-constant tempo. English tends to accelerate the tempo for unstressed syllables and slow it down a bit for stressed ones. Other languages have their own rhythmic and mellodic-line patterns which differ from English ones.

• Sounds. Consonants have allophonic variations depending on environment. And most of the 10+ vowels of English lack equivalents in most other European languages. Nothing really prepares you to utter them save tons of practice. And then, there's a lot of variation in the realizations of some vowels in different dialects. Plus, in most dialects they get blurred in unstressed positions, which takes me to...

• Sandhi. All languages have it, but English has a moderately complicated one that's usually not represented in its written form (in comics or informal texts it is sometimes, but not consistently). Sounds, both written and not, interact with their neighbours not just within a word but also at the boundaries of words, mutating into others.

• Über-naïf native speakers. Most of them are not aware of the different pronunciations they use - some even are unable to tell 2 sounds appart even though they clearly make the distinction when speaking. Of course they do can detect when you're sounding "weird" or "better" - but can't state why :(

Answer 9

The vast majority of people who learn English, even to very high levels, still sound 'foreign' because they do not employ the rules of connected speech.

See the following link:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/connected-speech

Answer 10

OP has "they don't know why is that" which is not a natural word order to me as UK Southern-received. More expected, if not 'natural', would be "they don't know why that is.". This would suggest to me that the OP has some gaps in syntatical fluency which may make native speakers aware that they are dealing with a non-native, thus increasing the likelihood that accent and pronunciation generally would be picked up as variant. All in all, though, I think the OP should stick with it and get exposed to as much native speech and writing as possible to clear away these few remaining issues.