d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
How to pronounce dad in American English
DAD
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Americans pronounce dad as DAD (/dæd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Dad drove today" or "My dad has a black hat" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "dad".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "dad" in the wild.
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Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "dad" 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 "DAD" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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