uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce arrive in American English
uh·RAHYV
Start here
Americans pronounce arrive as uh-RAHYV (/əˈraɪv/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "When did they say they would arrive?" or "The package was supposed to arrive today" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "arrive".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
In real conversation
Hear "arrive" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Hold the light in your right hand when you arrive."
HOHLD dhuh LAHYT ihn yor RAHYT HAND wehn yoo uh·RAHYV
"She waited at the platform for the train to arrive."
shee WAY·duhd uht dhuh PLAT·form fer dhuh TRAYN tuh uh·RAHYV
"The package should arrive here by Tuesday."
dhuh PA·kuhj shuud uh·RAHYV HEER bahy TOOZ·day
"The package was supposed to arrive today."
dhuh PA·kuhj wuhz suh·POHZD tuh uh·RAHYV tuh·DAY
"We need to vacuum the carpet before the guests arrive tonight."
wee NEED tuh VA·kyoom dhuh KAR·puht buh·FOR dhuh GEHSTS uh·RAHYV tuh·NAHYT
"We should clean up before our guests arrive."
wee shuud KLEEN UHP buh·FOR ar GEHSTS uh·RAHYV
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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 RAHYV — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·rahyv→uh·RAHYV
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·RAHYV→uh·RAHYV
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "arrive" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "RAHYV" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-RAHYV" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "arrive" 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-RAHYV" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "arrive" 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-RAHYV" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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