How to get a standard American accent?

There is no standard American accent. American English sounds little different in New York, LA, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. He could try watching videos of Americans speaking in the accent he'd like to emulate.

Tell him to relax his mouth and say everything further back than he is expecting. Like make the sounds further back with his tongue. Act like the front of his mouth is a rare journey.

I can't think of any way other than spend lots of time among native speakers. Also, American accents vary region to region--it would be a shame to acquire a southern accent and then travel to New England. There's nothing wrong with your friend's goal, but if he's worried about the impression he'll make, he should know that most Americans are very comfortable with accents, and won't be at all put off by a strong accent if the English is spoken reasonably well. At least that's the case in my region.

Assuming that your friend learned from British speakers as most Egyptians do, I would tell them to focus on better articulation of R's, which is not only always articulated in American English but also serve as a vowel as in "her purple purse". They may also want to become familiar with the extensive use of schwas in almost all unstressed vowel positions during rapid speech. British English has it as well, but Americans use it much more extensively. Otherwise, everyone here is right; more exposure is what it takes. I wouldn't stress too much on various American accents unless they are going to spend a lot of time in the south or New England.

Maybe they could watch a TON of American TV, turning on the subtitles, and speaking along with the actors.

Americans sing a different song when they speak. What I mean is that generally, regardless of the area we're from we modulate our voices in similar ways when we make a statement, or a statement of incredulity, a statement of solidarity, ask a question, etc etc. I'm not a linguist so I don't know the exact term for it, but I think of it as the 'song' we sing when we speak. comparing the way Iranians speak and the way North Africans speak, for instance, I would say that Iranians pitch their voices high more often. North Africans pitch their voices lower. So Iranians often sound whiny to American ears, and Tunisians sound like they're ready to make a deal or tell you an off-color joke. Which is preposterous, of course: it's just that the 'song' they sing in those regions is different than the one we 'sing' here. This [Turkish gentleman](https://www.tiktok.com/@tuxtontech/video/7289317383540526382?lang=en) sings the American 'song' pretty well. :)

Watch YouTube??

Have him think of it like playing a character (like an actor). Have him find someone with the accent he wants to emulate. National news anchors and game show hosts are good candidates because they speak clearly and generally have pretty neutral accents. You can help him pick someone that’s not very distinctive. Then repeat what they say. Record himself saying it. Once he feels like it’s pretty good, have a native speaker (you?) listen and help him hear the differences that he can’t pick up on his own. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I would say listen a lot and try mimicking how they speak I guess

by learning American phonetics (their vowels and consonants). Do drills to get used to them.

If your friend is willing to take criticism, (and if I am to assume that you have an American accent?), then you can correct his vowel sounds and get him to copy after you until he is saying that word/group of words/short sentence with a more American accent.

https://oli.cmu.edu/courses/american-english-speech-open-free/

People will tell you he should spend time practicing speaking and listening to lots of American speakers. He should. People will say that he should focus on consonants and vowels that are hard for Egyptian Arabic speakers. He should. And focused on one accent of American English. But people - even English teachers - overlook the importance of suprasegmentals (things like intonation, stress, rhythm). Stress in Arabic is regular whereas stress in English has a lexical element. It is the difference between the verb “present” and the noun “present”. English is also an stress-timed language which gives it a different kind of rhythm than someone used to a syllable-times language like Arabic. I think this is important because you can get your Ps and Vs perfect but if your stress and rhythm still reflect Arabic, you will never sound particularly American. In fact, you might even be harder to understand than someone who got the suprasegmentals right but is struggling a little with the minimal pairs.

Watch American shows and mimic what they say. Other than that, you can't. We all have accents. I was born and raised in the US and I will never have a "standard" accent.

That’s really kind of you to help him. Since he already speaks well, focusing on pronunciation and rhythm can help a lot. Shadowing native speakers (from YouTube, or even music or podcasts) is a great start. There’s also an app called Praktika where he can practice speaking with AI avatars and get feedback on how he sounds. It’s low-pressure and helps build confidence. Even just recording himself and comparing it to native speech can go a long way. With some consistency, he’ll definitely improve.

Practice. Speak lots. If you can't speak to others, speak to yourself. But there is no substitute for actually speaking. Listening kinda helps. Even if you are not concentrating, it helps if you have English speech in the background. So play English radio shows, while you are going about your day. But, mostly, speak. If you can't talk to others, still speak to yourself. Say what you're doing - in English. Even simple things. I'm reading Reddit. I'm typing on my keyboard. **Say** it, aloud. And what you did, earlier. And what you will do. Say it. Go for a walk, and describe what you see. Make up good sentences. "This is a very tall, gnarly tree with huge branches". Repeat the same walk, and remember what you said.

If he has the money, he could pay for accent coaching.

American standard phonetics youtube