uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce across in American English
uh·KRAHS
Start here
Americans pronounce across as uh-KRAHS (/əˈkrɔs/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Six snakes hissed across the soft grass" or "Pass the glass across the class with care" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "across".
2 syllables, 5 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.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "across" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Education inequality perpetuates cycles of poverty across generations."
eh·juh·KAY·shuhn uhn·uh·KWAH·luh·dee per·PEH·choo·ayts SAHY·kuhlz uhv PAH·ver·tee uh·KRAHS jeh·nuh·RAY·shuhnz
"He diversified his investments across different asset classes for safety."
hee dahy·VUR·suh·fahyd hihz ihn·VEHST·muhnts uh·KRAHS DIH·fruhnt A·suht KLA·suhz fer SAYF·tee
"I walked across the hall to call my daughter."
ahy WAHKT uh·KRAHS dhuh HAHL tuh KAHL mahy DAH·der
"Pass the glass across the class with care."
PAS dhuh GLAS uh·KRAHS dhuh KLAS wihth KAIR
"Rising inflation has affected commodity prices across the global market."
RAHY·zuhng uhn·FLAY·shuhn huhz uh·FEHK·tuhd kuh·MAH·duh·tee PRAHY·suhz uh·KRAHS dhuh GLOH·buhl MAR·kuht
"The child chased the chalk across the chart."
dhuh CHAHYLD CHAYST dhuh CHAHK uh·KRAHS dhuh CHART
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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 KRAHS — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·krahs→uh·KRAHS
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·KRAHS→uh·KRAHS
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "across" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "KRAHS" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-KRAHS" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "across" 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-KRAHS" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "across" 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-KRAHS" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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