k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
How to pronounce camouflage in American English
KA·muh·flahzh
Start here
Americans pronounce camouflage as KA-muh-flahzh (/ˈkæməˌflɑʒ/). In "camouflage", the "a" vowel before M or N raises and fronts toward [eə] — the tongue pulls up and forward, breaking the vowel into a tense glide as it anticipates the nasal. This is called the Cat-Vowel Before M/N, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as KA·muh·FLAHZH. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The octopus uses camouflage to hide from predators" or "Tigers have striped fur that helps them camouflage in the grass" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "camouflage".
3 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
NasalizedThe tongue relaxes down in the back and the corners of the lips relax before the consonant. This adds a schwa-like 'uh' relaxation after the /æ/. Think of it as 'relaxing out of the vowel' — it is no longer a pure /æ/ sound.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
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.
zh/ʒ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Add vocal cord vibration.
In real conversation
Hear "camouflage" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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
Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.
In "camouflage", the "a" vowel before M or N raises and fronts toward [eə] — the tongue pulls up and forward, breaking the vowel into a tense glide as it anticipates the nasal. The "/æ/" vowel raises and fronts before M or N — tongue pulls up and forward, producing a tense [eə] glide (between /e/ and /ə/). Not a pure /æ/.
KA-muh-flahzh→KA·muh·FLAHZH
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch KA — keep everything else short and quick.
ka·MUH·FLAHZH→KA·muh·FLAHZH
03
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
KA·MUH·flahzh→KA·muh·FLAHZH
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "camouflage" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "KA" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "KA-muh-flahzh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "camouflage" 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 "KA-muh-flahzh" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "camouflage" 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 "KA-muh-flahzh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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