b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce breathtaking in American English
BREHTH·tay·kuhng
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Americans pronounce breathtaking as BREHTH-tay-kuhng (/ˈbrɛθˌteɪkɪŋ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The cliff offers a breathtaking view of the ocean below".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "breathtaking".
3 syllables, 9 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
th/θ/
Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
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.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
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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 BREHTH — keep everything else short and quick.
brehth·TAY·KUHNG→BREHTH·TAY·kuhng
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
BREHTH·tay·KUHNG→BREHTH·TAY·kuhng
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "breathtaking" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "BREHTH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "BREHTH-tay-kuhng" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "breathtaking" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "BREHTH-tay-kuhng" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "breathtaking" 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 "BREHTH-tay-kuhng" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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