a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
How to pronounce absolutely in American English
ab·suh·LOOT·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce absolutely as ab-suh-LOOT-lee (/ˌæbsəˈlutli/). Stress falls on the third syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "You are absolutely correct" or "The traffic jam was absolutely terrible" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "absolutely" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "absolutely".
4 syllables, 9 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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "absolutely" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"She was absolutely glowing at her graduation ceremony yesterday."
shee wuhz ab·suh·LOOT·lee GLOH·uhng uht her gra·joo·AY·shuhn SEH·ruh·moh·nee YEH·ster·day
"She was absolutely thrilled when she heard the good news."
shee wuhz ab·suh·LOOT·lee THRIHLD wehn shee HURD dhuh GUUD NOOZ
"That was absolutely nothing to worry about."
DHAT wuhz ab·suh·LOOT·lee NUH·thuhng tuh WUR·ee uh·BOWT
"The bakery section smells absolutely wonderful in the mornings."
dhuh BAY·kuh·ree SEHK·shuhn SMEHLZ ab·suh·LOOT·lee WUHN·der·fuhl ihn dhuh MOR·nuhngz
"The morning traffic has been absolutely terrible this entire week."
dhuh MOR·nuhng TRA·fuhk huhz bihn ab·suh·LOOT·lee TEH·ruh·buhl dhihs uhn·TAHY·er WEEK
"The traffic jam was absolutely terrible."
dhuh TRA·fuhk JAM wuhz ab·suh·LOOT·lee TEH·ruh·buhl
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "absolutely", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
absolutely→AB·suh·LOOT·lee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the third syllable, not the others. Stretch LOOT — keep everything else short and quick.
AB·SUH·loot·LEE→AB·suh·LOOT·lee
03
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
ab·SUH·LOOT·lee→AB·suh·LOOT·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "absolutely" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the third syllable — say "LOOT" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ab-suh-LOOT-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "absolutely" 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 "ab-suh-LOOT-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "absolutely" 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 "ab-suh-LOOT-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "absolutely". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.