k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
How to pronounce cleanup in American English
KLEEN·uhp
Start here
Americans pronounce cleanup as KLEEN-uhp (/ˈklinˌʌp/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He participated in a beach cleanup to remove litter".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "cleanup".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
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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 "cleanup", the "p" 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.
cleanup→KLEEN·UHP
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch KLEEN — keep everything else short and quick.
kleen·UHP→KLEEN·UHP
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.
KLEEN·UHP→KLEEN·UHP
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "cleanup" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "KLEEN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "KLEEN-uhp" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "cleanup" 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 "KLEEN-uhp" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "cleanup" 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 "KLEEN-uhp" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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