uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce appreciates in American English
uh·PREE·shee·ayts
Start here
Americans pronounce appreciates as uh-PREE-shee-ayts (/əˈpriʃiˌeɪts/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He appreciates the immediacy and risk of live performance" or "He appreciates various genres ranging from jazz to classical music" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "appreciates".
4 syllables, 9 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.
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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without 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.
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.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
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 "appreciates" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He appreciates the immediacy and risk of live performance."
hee uh·PREE·shee·ayts dhee uh·MEE·dee·uh·see and RIHSK uhv LAHYV per·FOR·muhns
"He appreciates various genres ranging from jazz to classical music."
hee uh·PREE·shee·ayts VAIR·ee·uhs ZHAHN·ruhz RAYN·juhng fruhm JAZ tuh KLA·suh·kuhl MYOO·zuhk
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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 PREE — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·pree·SHEE·AYTS→uh·PREE·shee·AYTS
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·PREE·shee·ayts→uh·PREE·shee·AYTS
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "appreciates" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "PREE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-PREE-shee-ayts" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "appreciates" 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-PREE-shee-ayts" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "appreciates" 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-PREE-shee-ayts" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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