How to Do a New York Accent

There is some solid universal advice for whatever accent you’re adopting (including a broader American one), but each accent has its own unique traits. Actors mastering a New York accent must appreciate its trademark sounds and the vocal movements that produce it. 

Here are some fundamentals: 

1. Speak from the front of your mouth. 

“Every accent or dialect has its own unique placement of the jaw, tongue, lips, and mouth,” Australian actor Jake Fryer-Hornsby wrote for StageMilk. “If you get this right, the rest will feel and flow naturally.”

The accent New York natives employ tends to centre around the lower jaw. “It may help to feel like you’re holding something in your lower jaw in order to access this sensation,” says voice and dialect coach Rebecca Gausnell. Try visualising words being shaped by your lips and resonating toward the front of your mouth. (Here’s a demonstration from vocal coach Tracy Goodwin.) 

2. Drop the R. 

New York accents famously drop Rs that come before a consonant. 

• “Nurse” becomes “nuhse.” 
• “River” becomes “riva.”
• “Fourth floor” becomes "faith flaw.” 

It’s a vocal peculiarity more common to New Yorkers from older generations and the working class, so the number of Rs you drop may alter between characters. 

3. Lower the pitch and embrace a monotone.

Pitch and intonation also play crucial roles. New York accents are often relatively monotone, with a slight variation in pitch at the end of words. 

“There’s not a big pitch range in the New York dialect,” says actor and comedian Jeff Virkus. “However, there’s a pitch drop-off at the end of words.” 

4. Switch ‘th’ for a strong D or T. 

For the quintessential New York accent, voice and speech coach Patrick Muñoz says “dropping the softer, whispery ‘thhh’ sound for a harder ‘ddd’ or ‘ttt’ sound is very New York.”

• “These” becomes “dees.”
• “Thirty-third” becomes “toity-toid.” 
• “Three” becomes “tree.” 

When making D or T sounds, Muñoz says, “place your tongue against the back of your bottom teeth.” 

5. Elongate your vowels.

“The elongated ‘aw’ sound, used to extend vowels such as A and O, is another distinguishing feature of the New York accent,” Tara Parachuk writes for Voices. Elongate your vowels into an ‘aw’ sound, when they focus on an A or O. 

• “Talk” becomes “tawk.” 
• “Thought” becomes “tawwt.” 
• “Coffee” becomes “cawfee.”

6. Increase your pace.

Damian Lewis’ acclaimed portrayal of New Yorker Bobby Axelrod in Billions (2016–2023) owes much of its aptness to rhythm. “Whenever I’m working on an American accent,” Lewis said on a 2016 episode of Charlie Rose, “it’s about cadence, about rhythms, and it’s about emphasis more so than simply vowel sounds.”

Lewis channelled New Yorkers’ tendency to speak quickly, noting their “sudden increase in pace through the sentence” and making it a key part of his performance.

1. Start with the character.

“It’s about the character, not the accent,” says accent coach Sarah Valentine. “Think about your character’s class, their age, their outlook on life, their upbringing, and how these factors influence their speech. They are the most important things of all.” 

Class, culture, occupation, social group, and self-image inform an accent as much as birthplace. Consider how leading actors have used such factors to shape New York accents. 

• Meryl Streep in Doubt (2008) and Robert De Niro in Raging Bull (1980) both adopt Bronx accents, but the former’s strict nun has more measured speech than the latter’s working-class boxer. 
• In American Psycho (2000) Christian Bale’s Manhattan accent suggests a wealthy background, while his somewhat artificial and forced speech patterns suggest it may be an aspirational front.
• Rachel Brosnahan’s accent in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023) mirrors the eponymous protagonist’s Upper West Side breeding, while its tone reflects her confidence and positivity.
• Daniel Day-Lewis portrayed Bill “the Butcher” Cutting in Gangs of New York (2002) with a New York accent based on meticulous historical research that has been described as speaking with “the authoritative, persuasive-sounding voice of an individual who enjoys speaking in front of large crowds.”

2. Immerse yourself.

“Accents that you aren’t regularly exposed to are much more difficult to master,” actor and voice coach Alex Brown writes in Stage 32. “I believe this is one of the reasons why Americans have a hard time learning foreign dialects, whereas British and Australian actors tend to pick up American accents more quickly. They’re more exposed to them from a young age.”

The odds are in your favour if you’ve grown up consuming American media, but it’s time to immerse yourself even deeper by listening to podcasts and interviews featuring New York natives, listening actively to how each NYC accent sounds. 

3. Practise, practise, practise. 

Margot Robbie adopted commendable Brooklyn accents for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and Birds of Prey (2020), but even she once despaired about shedding her Aussie speech patterns. “When I first tried the American accent, for a moment I thought I could never be an actor because I just could not do it,” Robbie remembered. 

Then she spent a year refining her American accent before relocating to Hollywood. Follow her lead by practising — and practising some more. Read books aloud in a New York accent, go back and forth with a fellow actor, and take your time with challenging words and phrases. Those hours could eventually make your New York accent second nature. 

4. Try staying in character. 

Some actors can drop in and out of accents like it’s nothing. Others, like Bale, spoke in it from start to finish while shooting American Psycho. He reportedly only dropped it for the film’s wrap party, prompting most cast and crew to assume his natural British accent was simply practice for an upcoming role. 

Maybe you won’t take things quite that far, but maintaining an accent in daily life for at least a few hours can help you sound more natural and relax into your New York voice.