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 developing in American English
duh·VEH·luh·puhng
Start here
Americans pronounce developing as duh-VEH-luh-puhng (/dəˈvɛləpəŋ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He is developing a new prosthetic limb using advanced robotics" or "Developing effective study techniques requires consistent discipline and motivation" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "developing".
4 syllables, 9 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "developing" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Developing effective study techniques requires consistent discipline and motivation."
duh·VEH·luh·puhng uh·FEHK·tuhv STUH·dee tehk·NEEKS ruh·KWAHYRZ kuhn·SIH·stuhnt DIH·suh·pluhn and moh·duh·VAY·shuhn
"He is developing a new prosthetic limb using advanced robotics."
hee ihz duh·VEH·luh·puhng uh noo prahs·THEH·duhk LIHM YOO·zuhng uhd·VANST roh·BAH·duhks
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch VEH — keep everything else short and quick.
DUH·veh·LUH·PUHNG→duh·VEH·luh·puhng
02
Pronouncing the first 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.
DUH·VEH·luh·puhng→duh·VEH·luh·puhng
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "developing" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "VEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "duh-VEH-luh-puhng" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "developing" 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 "duh-VEH-luh-puhng" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "developing" 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 "duh-VEH-luh-puhng" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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