b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce bonsai in American English
BAHN·sahy
Start here
Americans pronounce bonsai as BAHN-sahy (/ˈbɑnˌsaɪ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He creates bonsai trees as a relaxing hobby".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "bonsai".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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.
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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 BAHN — keep everything else short and quick.
bahn·SAHY→BAHN·SAHY
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "bonsai" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "BAHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "BAHN-sahy" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "bonsai" 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 "BAHN-sahy" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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