How to pronounce brave in American English

IPA /breɪv/ Syllables 1 · brayv Stress 1st syllable

BRAYV

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Americans pronounce brave as BRAYV (/breɪv/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The brave velvet voice voted for value" or "Five lives were saved by the brave dive" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "brave".

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.

v/v/

Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.

In real conversation

Hear "brave" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Creating a great database takes brave behavior."

kree·AY·tuhng uh GRAYT DAY·duh·bays TAYKS BRAYV buh·HAY·vyer

"Five lives were saved by the brave dive."

FAHYV LAHYVZ wer SAYVD bahy dhuh BRAYV DAHYV

"The brave velvet voice voted for value."

dhuh BRAYV VEHL·vuht VOYS VOH·duhd fer VAL·yoo

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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