How to speak slower: 8 drills to stop talking so fast

Am I talking too fast?

You are probably talking too fast if people often ask you to repeat yourself, you run out of breath in the middle of sentences, or the ends of your sentences get swallowed. In a presentation, a measured rate above about 170 words per minute is a strong sign, especially on calls or with listeners for whom English is a second language.

Other signs to watch for:

• You pause only to breathe, never to let a point land.
• Small words disappear and words blur together ("didja," "gonna," "wanna" where you meant them in full).
• You finish a rehearsed talk well under its time slot.
• You feel breathless or wired after speaking, and can't remember exactly what you said.

The quickest objective check is the free speaking rate test, which shows your words per minute and how often you pause. Here is how different rates tend to come across in a talk or a serious conversation:

For how these numbers compare across conversation, presentations, audiobooks and podcasts, see our guide to the average speaking rate.

Why do I talk so fast?

Most fast talkers rush for one of four reasons: nerves, thoughts racing ahead of the mouth, a habit learned in fast-talking surroundings, or excitement about the subject. Knowing which one drives you tells you which drills to start with, because a nervous rush and an enthusiastic one need different fixes.

• Nerves. Adrenaline speeds up breathing and speech, and part of you wants to get it over with. Silence feels far longer to the speaker than to the listener, so pauses feel dangerous. If this is you, pair the drills below with our guide on overcoming the fear of public speaking.
• Thinking ahead. Your mind is already three sentences on, and your mouth hurries to catch up. This is common in quick thinkers and in people explaining material they know very well.
• Habit and environment. If you grew up in a loud household or work in meetings where you have to fight for airtime, speaking fast keeps you from being interrupted. The habit then follows you into situations where nobody would interrupt you.
• Excitement and energy. Enthusiasm speeds people up. Some people, including some with ADHD, describe racing thoughts that come out as rapid speech; the drills below still help, whatever the reason.

Context matters too. Research on telephone conversations found that people speak more slowly with strangers than with friends and family, so a pace that is perfectly normal at the dinner table can be too fast for a client call.

8 drills to speak slower

Slowing down works best through pauses and phrasing, not by stretching every word. Do two or three of these drills for 5 to 10 minutes a day and record each session; a pace that feels painfully slow from the inside usually sounds completely normal on playback.

1. Punctuation pauses (3 minutes). Take a paragraph of an article and mark a single slash at every comma and a double slash at every full stop. Read it aloud with a silent one-beat pause at each single slash and a two-beat pause, with a breath, at each double slash. Most fast talkers fix half the problem with this drill alone.
2. One idea per breath (3 minutes). Breathe in, say one phrase of five to eight words, and stop. Breathe, then say the next phrase. Start with a written passage, then do it while describing your day out loud. This replaces the long, run-on sentence with short, clear units listeners can follow.
3. Metronome and target-pace reading (3 minutes). Set a free metronome app to 120 beats per minute and speak one word per click for 30 seconds; it feels robotic, which is the point. Then turn it off and read the 121-word passage on the speaking rate test, aiming to take close to a minute, which is about 120 to 130 wpm.
4. Stress the key word (2 minutes). In each sentence, choose the single most important word and give it slightly more length, pitch and volume: "We need the report by Friday." Stretching the key word slows the sentence naturally without making the rest sound dragged out.
5. Pause before numbers and names (2 minutes, 10 sentences). Write ten sentences containing a figure or a name and pause for a full beat before it: "Our budget for next year is... 40,000 dollars." "Please welcome... Priya Shah." Numbers are where fast talkers lose listeners most.
6. Land the last word (2 minutes). Read a paragraph making sure the final word of every sentence is said completely, with the pitch falling, before you stop. Swallowed endings are the most audible symptom of rushing, and finishing them forces a natural pause.
7. Conversation pacing (3 real conversations a day). Pick one or two of these for the day's calls and chats: take a breath before you answer a question, let the other person finish and count one beat before replying, match their pace rather than outrunning it, and end your turn with a full stop instead of trailing on with "and, um, so."
8. Record and compare (3 minutes, twice a week). Record 60 seconds of free talk about your work or your weekend and take the speaking rate test. Write down your words per minute and pauses per minute, then listen back for swallowed endings. Compare with your first recording each week.

How to slow down when you're nervous

When nerves hit, aim for the first 30 seconds rather than the whole talk. If you open slowly and pause after your first sentence, your breathing settles and the rest of the talk tends to follow that pace. Rushing at the start does the opposite.

• Breathe out first. Before you start, take a slow breath in and an even longer breath out. A long exhale calms the body faster than a deep inhale.
• Script your opening. Know your first two sentences word for word, with the pauses marked, so you are not thinking and speaking at full speed at the same time.
• Use a physical anchor. Look at one person while you finish a sentence, or take a sip of water between sections. Both create natural pauses.
• Expect the silence to feel long. A two-second pause that feels endless to you sounds thoughtful to the room.

Steady, unhurried delivery is a large part of sounding self-assured; our guide on how to sound more confident when speaking covers the other half, from breath support to falling sentence endings.

A 7-day plan to stop talking so fast

Seven days will not rewire a lifelong habit, but it is enough to measure your starting point, learn the core drills and notice the difference on a recording. Spend 5 to 10 minutes a day, then keep the two drills that helped most.

After the first week, keep the practice short and regular. Most people hold the slower pace in drills quite quickly; it takes several more weeks before it shows up automatically in meetings and stressful conversations. If you want your pace tracked over that time, Voceris scores pace and pauses separately on each recording and builds a daily plan that includes pacing drills.

Don't overcorrect

The goal is not to speak slowly all the time. A uniformly slow pace can sound hesitant, tired or even patronizing. What listeners want is variety: a comfortable average with clear pauses, slower stretches for key points, and a little more speed through familiar material.

Clarity matters as much as speed. If your words are crisp and your pauses are in the right places, a brisk pace is easy to follow. If you mumble, even a slow pace is hard work for the listener; our guide on how to speak more clearly covers articulation drills that pair well with the ones above. And if slowing down leaves gaps you fill with "um," the fix is in how to stop saying um.

When fast speech is more than a habit

For most people, talking fast is a habit that responds to practice. Occasionally it is part of cluttering, a fluency disorder that the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association describes as a rate that is perceived to be abnormally rapid and/or irregular, often with irregular pausing, extra disfluencies and words that run together.

Consider seeing a speech-language pathologist if people often cannot understand you even when you try to slow down, if your speech also has frequent repetitions or blocks, or if the problem affects your work or relationships. A sudden change in how fast or clearly you speak is a reason to see a doctor promptly.