uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce accountability in American English
uh·kown·tuh·BIH·luh·tee
Start here
Americans pronounce accountability as uh-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee (/əˌkaʊntəˈbɪləɾi/). In "accountability", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. This is called the Silent T after N, and it's one of the defining features of casual American English. It comes out as uh·KOWN·tuh·BIH·luh·tee. Stress falls on the fourth syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She campaigned on a platform of transparency and government accountability".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "accountability".
6 syllables, 12 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
ow/aʊ/
Start with a dropped jaw and flat tongue. Glide into a relaxed, slightly rounded lip position as the back of the tongue stretches up.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
t/t/
DroppedThe T is skipped entirely. Your tongue doesn't make contact at the T position.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
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 "accountability" 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
Pronouncing the silent T after N.
In "accountability", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. /t/ is completely silent — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
accountability→uh·KOWN·tuh·BIH·luh·tee
02
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "accountability", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
uh-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee→uh·KOWN·tuh·BIH·luh·tee
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the fourth syllable, not the others. Stretch BIH — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·KOWN·TUH·bih·LUH·TEE→uh·KOWN·tuh·BIH·luh·tee
04
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·kown·tuh·BIH·luh·tee→uh·KOWN·tuh·BIH·luh·tee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "accountability" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the fourth syllable — say "BIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "accountability"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "accountability" sounds closer to "uh-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the first syllable in "accountability" 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-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "accountability" 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-kown-tuh-BIH-luh-tee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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