uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce alone in American English
uh·LOHN
Start here
Americans pronounce alone as uh-LOHN (/əˈloʊn/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The goal is to grow the global role alone" or "Do you want to work on this alone or together?" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "alone".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back 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.
In real conversation
Hear "alone" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Do you want to work on this alone or together?"
doo yuh WAHNT tuh WURK ahn dhihs uh·LOHN er tuh·GEH·dher
"The cost savings alone justify the initial investment required."
dhuh kahst SAY·vuhngz uh·LOHN JUH·stuh·fahy dhee ih·NIH·shuhl ihn·VEHST·muhnt ruh·KWAHY·erd
"The goal is to grow the global role alone."
dhuh GOHL ihz tuh GROH dhuh GLOH·buhl ROHL uh·LOHN
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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 LOHN — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·lohn→uh·LOHN
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·LOHN→uh·LOHN
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "alone" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "LOHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-LOHN" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "alone" 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-LOHN" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "alone" 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-LOHN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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