VOICE SKILLS · PACE
How to speak slower without sounding strange
You don't need to drag every word. Measure your pace once, then slow down in the few places listeners need it most.
Written by the SpeakConfident team · Updated · Part of our presentation guides
The short answer
To speak slower, don't drag every word. Pause for a beat at each full stop, take your first and last sentences slower than the rest, and breathe out before you start. Measure your pace once, then practise two speeds: normal for detail, and slower for the line you most need people to hear.
“Slow down” is the most common note anyone gets about speaking, and the least helpful. Slow down where? By how much? And how do you do it without sounding like a sat-nav?
Most of the gain comes from three moments: the first ten seconds, when nerves push you fastest; the pause after each full stop; and the line you most need people to hear.
This guide shows you how to measure your pace, what the research says about “normal” speaking rates (less than you'd think), and six ways to slow down that still sound like you. Find your number first. Then try one change.
Are you actually too fast? Measure it
Find out before you change anything. Plenty of people who are told they rush turn out to have a normal pace with no pauses, which is a different problem with a different fix.
Speaking speed test
Read a short passage out loud, or talk freely for up to a minute. You'll see your words per minute, what that means for listeners, and one drill to try next.
Last spring my neighbour asked if I wanted to help with her vegetable patch. I said yes before I had thought about it, which is how most good things happen to me. In the first week, I pulled up a whole row of carrots because I thought they were weeds. She laughed so hard she had to sit down on the wheelbarrow. After that, she gave me one job at a time. Water the beans. Tie up the tomatoes. Keep the snails off the lettuce, which turned out to be a full-time job. By August we had more courgettes than either of us could eat, so we left boxes of them by the front gate with a sign that said help yourself. People did, and some of them even left notes.
Read at your normal pace, as if to a colleague across the table. Don't rush and don't perform. Tap the button to start, and tap again when you finish.
Tap to speak
About a minute
When you tap, you'll be asked to allow the microphone. Choose Allow.
No microphone? Estimate a speech from its word count instead.
Words per minute is simple: the number of words you said, divided by the time you spent saying them. The tool times you from your first word to your last, so a slow start or a fumble for the stop button doesn't count against you. Pauses in the middle do count, because your listeners hear them too. Fillers like “um” aren't counted as words.
Try it both ways. Reading aloud is usually faster than talking, because the words are in front of you and you never stop to search for the next one. If you're giving a scripted talk, your reading number is the one to plan with; the speech time calculator turns it into a running time. For meetings and interviews, your free-talking number matters more.
What's a good speaking rate?
There isn't one right number. Speaking rate depends on who you are, who you're talking to, what you're talking about, and, surprisingly often, on how the rate is measured.
The clearest example comes from a 2006 study of thousands of recorded phone conversations. Counting every word and dividing by the length of each call gave an average of 196 words per minute. Leaving out silences and noises gave 236. Adding up each speaker's own turns gave 164.[1] Same people, same words, three very different numbers. So when a website tells you the “ideal” rate is exactly 150, ask how they counted.
The same study found that rate shifts with the situation:
- People spoke more slowly with strangers (193 words per minute in a corpus of calls between strangers) than with friends and family (214 in a corpus of family calls), a difference the authors call only about 10%.[1]
- Rate changed with the topic, from about 152 to nearly 170 words per minute. The authors suggest people slow down for content that feels more important or unexpected.[1]
- Older speakers were slower, and men were only very slightly faster than women: about 2%.[1]
For a reference point outside conversation: Audible's audiobook production platform, ACX, says most narrators read about 9,300 words an hour, which works out at roughly 155 words per minute.[2] That's an average for estimating length, not a target.
In the app, our coach currently aims for 130 to 165 words per minute for meetings, interviews and talks, and flags anything above 165 as fast. That's a product setting we're still calibrating, not a law. If you speak carefully on purpose, or you're speaking English as a second language, you can switch on the relaxed pace target (112 to 165), and the coach won't ask you to speed up unless you're genuinely slow.
| Words per minute | Band | What listeners hear |
|---|---|---|
| Under 110 | Very slow | Slow enough that listeners may start to drift. |
| 110–129 | Unhurried | Calm and easy to follow, just under the usual range. |
| 130–165 | Easy to follow | Right inside the range our coach aims for. |
| 166–185 | Quick | Fine for a chat, quick for a room. |
| Over 185 | Very fast | Hard for most listeners to follow for long. |
Why you speed up
Pressure changes your breathing first. Adrenaline speeds up your heart and your breath, your breath moves up into your chest, and sentences come out shorter and faster with the pauses squeezed out. Many people find their first ten seconds are their fastest, which is why the app reports your opening pace separately from your overall pace.
The hopeful part is that the link may run both ways. In a 1993 lab study, people described frightening or stressful events from their own lives in one of three voices. Speaking fast and loud went with the highest levels of arousal, both how they felt and their heart and blood pressure. Speaking slowly and softly cancelled that rise.[3] It's one study, and it doesn't prove that slowing down will calm you before a big talk. But it fits what many speakers notice: a slower first sentence tends to settle the rest.
There's a quieter cause too: knowing your material too well. When you've said something fifty times, you forget the listener is hearing it for the first time. That's common in status updates and well-worn presentations.
Six ways to slow down that don't sound forced
Start with the first one. Add the next only when the first feels normal. The first three do most of the work.
Why these and not “speak each word more slowly”? Because stretching words is what makes slow speech sound odd. In a study of student presentations, a speaker's rate in syllables per second didn't predict whether judges found them lively; how much their pitch moved did.[4] So slow down with pauses and phrasing, and keep your voice moving.
1. Stop at the full stops
Most fast talkers don't say words quickly. They skip the gaps. Stop completely at every full stop and count “one” silently. Your words stay the same speed; your overall pace drops, and each idea gets its own space.
The address has changed. I'll send you the new one tonight. Please don't go to the old office. It's closed for good. If you get lost, call me.
2. Slow the first ten seconds
Take your opening sentence slower and a little lower than feels natural. Breathe out for four counts first. The rest of your answer tends to follow the pace you set at the start, so this one change often fixes the whole take.
3. Slow the last line
The last sentence is the one people remember, and it's the one nerves rush most as you race for the finish. Give it about half your usual speed. Land the last word and stop.
That's the plan for the quarter. Three projects, one team, twelve weeks.
If we stay focused, we'll get there. Let's. Make. It. Count.
4. Two gears: quick for detail, slow for what matters
Good speakers change speed on purpose. Move briskly through background and lists, then brake for the point. The contrast is what tells listeners “this bit matters”, and it keeps you from sounding uniformly slow.
We had a busy year: new clients, new hires, a new office, the usual chaos.
But here is what matters. Our customers are staying. Every single one renewed.
5. The power pause before the key word
A pause right before your most important word makes people lean in. Hold a full second. It feels huge to you and sounds deliberate to them.
It isn't the price. It isn't the design. It's… speed.
6. Let the question land before you answer
Two kinds of question rush people. When you're asked one, pause for two seconds before you answer; it slows your start and reads as thought. When you ask one, wait two full seconds before moving on, so people can actually think about it.
Today's drill
Pick technique 1. Read the address passage above twice: once at your normal speed, once counting “one” at each full stop. Record both. Listen back to the second one. Most people expect it to sound slow, and hear that it sounds clear.
A five-minute daily drill
This drill practises the hard part: slowing down when the words are your own, not read from a page.
- Read a paragraph out loud from anything you've read today: an article, a report, an email. Pause at every full stop. (1 minute)
- Close it. Explain the same idea in your own words, for about a minute, to an imaginary colleague. Use two gears: quick through the background, slow for the point. (1 minute)
- Play it back once. Notice where you sped up. Usually it's the start, the end, or anywhere you got excited. (1 minute)
- Do it again, slowing only those parts. (1 minute)
- Check your pace with the speed test above or in the app, and write down the number. (1 minute)
REHEARSE IT
Say it out loud now
Try thisExplain a topic you know well for a minute. Slow down for your last sentence.
60 seconds. Free. You'll see your pace, your pauses and where you rushed, then you can try it again.
Record my answerNo account needed for your first take. Your audio stays private. The app gives you its own one-minute prompt; use it, or answer this one.
Slowing down in meetings, interviews and presentations
The same techniques apply everywhere, but each setting has one moment that matters most.
- Meetings: slow your first sentence when you speak up, especially if you've been waiting to get a word in. See speaking up in meetings.
- Interviews: pause before each answer (technique 6), then slow down for your closing line, the one that answers the question. See interview practice.
- Presentations: slow the opening and the final line, and use the power pause before your key number or idea. Time your script with the speech time calculator at the pace you really speak. See presentation practice.
When fast is fine
Fast has its place. It suits stories, lists, excitement and background detail, and a quick, energetic stretch can be exactly what a room needs.
Going too slow has a cost too. In a classic 1975 study, listeners heard recorded voices sped up or slowed down by up to 50%. Ratings of competence rose and fell with the speed: slower voices were rated less competent. Ratings of warmth peaked at each speaker's normal rate.[5] The voices were altered by computer, so it's not the same as a real person choosing to pause, but it's a good warning against dragging everything.
What listeners seem to like is variation: changes in speed and in pitch. If you slow down and also go flat, you'll sound more tired than calm. Keep your voice moving, and save the slow gear for the moments that need it. The speaking style quiz is a quick way to see whether pace or melody is your bigger lever.
Practise this in the app
Each rep is two short takes: one to hear where you are, then one after a single cue from your coach.
- Chapter 2 · Pause & PaceStop at the full stops
Stop completely at every full stop. Count one silently.
- Chapter 7 · Under PressureSlow and low to start
First ten seconds: slower and lower than feels natural.
- Chapter 2 · Pause & PaceSlow the last line
Read normally, then slow right down for the last sentence.
- Chapter 2 · Pause & PaceTwo gears
Fast through the busy part. Slow for 'here is what matters'.
- Chapter 2 · Pause & PaceThe power pause
Pause a full second before the last word.
- Chapter 2 · Pause & PaceLet the question land
After the question, wait two full seconds.
- GymFreeBefore your big moment
Breathe out for four counts. First line slow, then keep going.
QUESTIONS
Questions people ask
What's the average speaking rate?
It depends heavily on how you measure it. One large study of phone conversations found 164, 196 or 236 words per minute from the same recordings, depending on how time was counted. Audiobook narrators average about 155 words per minute. For talks and meetings, 130 to 165 is a comfortable range for most listeners.
Is 160 words per minute too fast?
Not usually. 160 is inside the range most listeners follow easily, and it's close to how fast people talk in everyday conversation. What matters more is whether you pause between ideas and slow down for the key line. A pause-free 160 can feel rushed; 160 with clean pauses usually sounds clear.
Why do I talk fast when I'm nervous?
Pressure speeds up your breathing and moves it into your chest, so sentences come out shorter and faster and the pauses disappear. The first few seconds are often the fastest. A slow breath out before you start, and a deliberately slow first sentence, help most people settle into a steadier pace.
How do I slow down without losing energy?
Slow down with pauses, not by stretching words. Keep your words at their normal speed, stop fully at full stops, and keep your pitch moving. Use two gears: quick for background and lists, slow for the point. That contrast sounds energetic and deliberate rather than sleepy.
Does speaking slowly make you sound more confident?
Not by itself. In one classic study, voices that were slowed down were rated less competent, not more. What tends to come across as calm and sure is a steady start, clear pauses between ideas and a slower final line, rather than slowness everywhere.
Sources
- Yuan, J., Liberman, M. & Cieri, C. (2006). Towards an integrated understanding of speaking rate in conversation. Proceedings of Interspeech 2006 (ICSLP). Large corpora of recorded phone calls. Gives 196, 236 and 164 words per minute for the same English corpus depending on method, and compares strangers with family, topics, age and sex. Conversation, not presentations. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- ACX (Audible). How long will my narrated audiobook be? States that most narrators record about 9,300 words per hour. An industry average for estimating length. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- Siegman, A. W. & Boyle, S. (1993). Voices of fear and anxiety and sadness and depression: the effects of speech rate and loudness on fear and anxiety and sadness and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102(3), 430–437. Lab study: speaking about fear-arousing events in a fast, loud voice went with the highest arousal; a slow, soft voice cancelled the rise in cardiovascular arousal. Doesn't show that anxiety makes people speak faster. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- Hincks, R. (2005). Measuring liveliness in presentation speech. Proceedings of Interspeech 2005, 765–768. 18 student presenters speaking English as a second language. Pitch variation strongly predicted judged liveliness; speaking rate did not. Small sample. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- Smith, B. L., Brown, B. L., Strong, W. J. & Rencher, A. C. (1975). Effects of speech rate on personality perception. Language and Speech, 18(2), 145–152. Computer-altered voices sped up and slowed down by up to 50%. Competence ratings rose with rate; benevolence peaked at normal rate. Synthetic rate changes, not natural pausing. Accessed 12 October 2026.
Hear it for yourself.
Record one minute, see your fillers, pace and pauses, get one thing to change, and try take two.
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