# How to talk clearly

Source: https://voicekata.com/how-to-talk-clearly
Site: Voice Kata — a voice coach in your browser for the speaking voice (https://voicekata.com)

When people say they cannot make you out, it is often not your consonants. It is the tone: airy, breathy, thin, so the words arrive without a core. This guide is about that half — a focused, clean sound. Articulation is the other half, and worth its own practice.

**Try it:** https://voicekata.com/?for=dating&goal=clarity — Read six lines. The teacher stops you where the tone goes breathy, and you redo the line with more voice behind it. Free, in the browser, no account; the voice is analysed on the device and never recorded.

## Two kinds of unclear

Articulation is how the consonants, tongue, lips and mouth shape each word. Tone is the sound underneath those shapes. When air leaks around the tone, even accurate consonants can arrive soft at their edges.

This page and this drill work on tone. They do not judge diction, accent, pronunciation or filler words. If your consonants are the issue, practise their mouth movements separately.

## What a breathy voice is

A breathy voice lets air escape past the vocal folds instead of turning it into a focused sound. It can feel soft and intimate, but it may also sound thin or tired and lose carry across a table.

Put a hand near the mouth and speak one easy line. A little air is normal. A large stream with very little tone suggests that more of the breath could become voice.

## How to get a focused tone

Hum gently until the lips buzz. Say the line at the level of that hum and keep the same clean core as the mouth opens. Think less air and more voice, without squeezing the throat.

Keep the mouth open enough for the sound to leave. A closed jaw can make focused tone seem muffled, even when the breath is working well.

## How do I stop mumbling?

Open the mouth a finger wider, finish the last word at the level of the first, and slow the flow with pauses. Then check the tone as well: breathiness is the half many people miss when they work only on consonants.

## How the drill trains it

Your warm-up sets your usual tone. When a later line becomes breathier than that starting point, the teacher stops it, names the spot and asks for a focused sound. You redo only that line.

The Clarity goal is in Dating because nerves can make the breath short and airy. It measures clean tone, not articulation or pronunciation, and makes no promise about either.

## Related

- [Speak louder without shouting](https://voicekata.com/how-to-speak-louder-without-shouting)
- [Stop vocal fry](https://voicekata.com/how-to-stop-vocal-fry)
- [Speak slower](https://voicekata.com/how-to-speak-slower)