uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce agility in American English
uh·JIH·luh·tee
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Americans pronounce agility as uh-JIH-luh-tee (/əˈdʒɪləɾi/). In "agility", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. It comes out as uh·JIH·luh·tee. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He improved his agility through specific drills".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "agility".
4 syllables, 7 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.
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.
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "agility", 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-JIH-luh-tee→uh·JIH·luh·tee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch JIH — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·jih·LUH·TEE→uh·JIH·luh·tee
03
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·JIH·luh·tee→uh·JIH·luh·tee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "agility" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "JIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-JIH-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 "agility"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "agility" sounds closer to "uh-JIH-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 "agility" 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-JIH-luh-tee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "agility" 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-JIH-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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