ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
How to pronounce agency in American English
AY·juhn·see
Start here
Americans pronounce agency as AY-juhn-see (/ˈeɪdʒənsi/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Explain the nature of the chaotic state agency" or "The space agency announced plans for a mission to Venus" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "agency".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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 "agency" 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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "agency", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
agency→AY·juhn·see
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch AY — keep everything else short and quick.
ay·JUHN·SEE→AY·juhn·see
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.
AY·JUHN·see→AY·juhn·see
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "agency" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "AY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "AY-juhn-see" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "agency" 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 "AY-juhn-see" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "agency" 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 "AY-juhn-see" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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