How to pronounce brace in American English

IPA /breɪs/ Syllables 1 · brays Stress 1st syllable

BRAYS

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Americans pronounce brace as BRAYS (/breɪs/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The ankle brace provides support for his injury".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "brace".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

b/b/

Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.

r/r/

Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "brace" in the wild.

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"The ankle brace provides support for his injury."

dhee ANG·kuhl BRAYS pruh·VAHYDZ suh·PORT fer hihz IHN·juh·ree

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "brace" 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 "BRAYS" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.