uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce apology in American English
uh·PAH·luh·jee
Start here
Americans pronounce apology as uh-PAH-luh-jee (/əˈpɑlədʒi/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Thank you for accepting my apology so graciously" or "I owe you an apology for the way I behaved yesterday" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "apology".
4 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
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.
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.
j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
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 "apology" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I hope this apology can be the first step toward reconciliation."
ahy HOHP dhihs uh·PAH·luh·jee kuhn bee dhuh FURST STEHP tuh·WORD reh·kuhn·sih·lee·AY·shuhn
"I owe you an apology for the way I behaved yesterday."
ahy OH yoo uhn uh·PAH·luh·jee fer dhuh WAY ahy buh·HAYVD YEH·ster·day
"Please accept my heartfelt apology for being so thoughtless."
PLEEZ uhk·SEHPT mahy HART·fehlt uh·PAH·luh·jee fer BEE·uhng SOH THAHT·luhs
"Thank you for accepting my apology so graciously."
THANGK yoo fer uhk·SEHP·tuhng mahy uh·PAH·luh·jee SOH GRAY·shuh·slee
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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 PAH — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·pah·LUH·JEE→uh·PAH·luh·jee
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·PAH·luh·jee→uh·PAH·luh·jee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "apology" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "PAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-PAH-luh-jee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "apology" 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-PAH-luh-jee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "apology" 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-PAH-luh-jee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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