b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce bound in American English
BOWND
Start here
Americans pronounce bound as BOWND (/baʊnd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Allow the powder to surround the outer bound".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "bound".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ow/aʊ/
Start with a dropped jaw and flat tongue. Glide into a relaxed, slightly rounded lip position as the back of the tongue stretches up.
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.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "bound", the "d" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
bound→BOWND
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "bound" 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 "BOWND" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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