Speaking speed test

Press Start, read the passage out loud at your normal pace, then press Done. The passage is 139 words, so the time gives your words per minute. No microphone; the timer runs in your browser.

Most of us talk faster when we are nervous. The words come out in a rush, and the small gaps between them fill up with sounds like um and uh. Listeners rarely mind a short silence. Nobody in the room is counting the seconds. They use it to catch up with what you just said. A speaker who pauses sounds like someone who knows where the sentence is going. So the next time you lose your place, stop for a moment instead of filling the gap. Breathe, find the next thought, and start the sentence again. Slow down a little on the words that matter most. It feels long to you. To the room it sounds like a comma. Try it in your next meeting, on a phone call, or when someone asks you to tell them about yourself.

What your number means

Commawise treats 130 to 160 words per minute as comfortable for answering questions and presenting. Below it, listeners can follow but may drift. Above it, words start to blur together and you leave yourself no time to think.

Reading aloud is the easy case. The words are already chosen, so you don't stall, and you don't say um. Off the cuff, nerves tend to speed you up and searching for a word slows you down. Your number here is a starting point, not your pace in an interview.

How to talk slower

End sentences. Run-on sentences joined with "and" are where pace climbs.
Pause after the point you most want remembered, for a full second.
Breathe at the full stops, not in the middle of a phrase.
Check a script's length with the speech time calculator so you aren't rushing to fit too many words.

Test your pace on a real answer

Answer one real question out loud for up to 2 minutes. Commawise times your pace with the silences at the start and end left out, marks the ums and likes in your transcript, and counts the clean pauses you took.

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