uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce above in American English
uh·BUHV
Start here
Americans pronounce above as uh-BUHV (/əˈbʌv/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She hung new pictures on the wall above the fireplace" or "The eagle soared high above the mountains looking for prey" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "above".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
In real conversation
Hear "above" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch BUHV — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·buhv→uh·BUHV
02
Pronouncing the first syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
UH·BUHV→uh·BUHV
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "above" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "BUHV" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-BUHV" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "above" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "uh-BUHV" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "above" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "uh-BUHV" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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