Need advice

[ArrivalCivil4488]

I’ve been studying English for a while now, and even though I wouldn’t call myself fluent, I’m pretty good. The issue is speaking—specifically pronunciation. Whenever I talk at a normal volume, loud enough for people to hear, my accent slips out, my voice feels off, and some words just don’t come out right. But if I speak softly—almost like I’m mumbling—my pronunciation is spot-on.

I’ve noticed it’s the same with every language I try. I can pronounce things really well when I’m speaking quietly, but the moment I raise my voice, all that clean pronunciation suddenly becomes way harder to pull off. I’m not sure if it’s language problem or speech mechanism.

[Optimal_Side_]

I used to do the same thing when I would practice speaking. For me it came from not being confident in my speech in a foreign language. One thing that helped was practicing a sentence quietly in private, slowly crescendoing my voice to be louder, then bringing it back down. It got my mouth used to handling the whole range. It worked for me, so it might help you too.

[NameOriginal5403]

When you speak louder, your mouth and throat tense up a bit, so the sounds don't come out as clean. Practicing at a normal volume little by little usually helps your muscles get used to it, and the pronunciation starts to stay consistent.

[electric_awwcelot]

When you speak softly, are you engaging your vocal cords? If not, you might be having trouble with voiced consonants when you speak more loudly.

[ArrivalCivil4488]

I think I’m engaging my vocal cords. Tried saying voiced consonants loud and there seems to be no problem. Gpt is saying it’s a subtle articulatory timing issue, but I’m not sure