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.
How to pronounce autoimmune in American English
ah·toh·ih·MYOON
Start here
Americans pronounce autoimmune as ah-toh-ih-MYOON (/ˌɑɾoʊɪˈmjun/). In "autoimmune", 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 hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as AH·toh·ih·MYOON. Stress falls on the fourth syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The autoimmune disease causes the body to attack its own tissues".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "autoimmune".
4 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
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.
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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
yoo/ju/
Start with the tongue mid-front raised high, almost touching the roof of the mouth (but not touching). Glide into a tight lip circle as the tongue back lifts.
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.
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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 "autoimmune", 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.
ah-toh-ih-MYOON→AH·toh·ih·MYOON
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the fourth syllable, not the others. Stretch MYOON — keep everything else short and quick.
AH·TOH·IH·myoon→AH·toh·ih·MYOON
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "autoimmune" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the fourth syllable — say "MYOON" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ah-toh-ih-MYOON" 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 "autoimmune"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "autoimmune" sounds closer to "ah-toh-ih-MYOON" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Is the American pronunciation of "autoimmune" 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 "ah-toh-ih-MYOON" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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