b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce bases in American English
BAY·suhz
Start here
Americans pronounce bases as BAY-suhz (/ˈbeɪsəz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Acids and bases react to form salts and water" or "He hit a home run and ran around all the bases" — more examples below.
Now you try.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "bases".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "bases" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch BAY — keep everything else short and quick.
bay·SUHZ→BAY·suhz
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
BAY·SUHZ→BAY·suhz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "bases" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "BAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "BAY-suhz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "bases" 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 "BAY-suhz" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "bases" 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 "BAY-suhz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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