b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce bother in American English
BAH·dher
Start here
Americans pronounce bother as BAH-dher (/ˈbɑðər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Neither father nor mother would bother either".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "bother".
2 syllables, 4 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.
dh/ð/
Place your tongue tip between or behind your front teeth, turn your vocal cords on, and push air through the gap.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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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 BAH — keep everything else short and quick.
bah·DHER→BAH·dher
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "bother" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "BAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "BAH-dher" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "bother"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "bother" 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 "BAH-dher" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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