How to pronounce down in American English

IPA /daʊn/ Syllables 1 · down Stress 1st syllable

DOWN

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Americans pronounce down as DOWN (/daʊn/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Put the pen down" or "Run down the road" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "down".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

ow/aʊ/

Start with a dropped jaw and flat tongue. Glide into a relaxed, slightly rounded lip position as the back of the tongue stretches up.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "down" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Could you roll down the car window, please?"

kuud yoo ROHL DOWN dhuh KAR WIHN·doh PLEEZ

"Could you turn the music down a little?"

kuud yoo TURN dhuh MYOO·zuhk DOWN uh LIH·duhl

"Counting down the hours allowed us to bounce."

KOWN·tuhng DOWN dhee OW·erz uh·LOWD uhs tuh BOWNS

"Dad decided to drive down to the dam."

DAD duh·SAHY·duhd tuh DRAHYV DOWN tuh dhuh DAM

"I broke down large assignments into smaller manageable tasks."

ahy BROHK DOWN LARJ uh·SAHYN·muhnts ihn·too SMAH·ler MA·nuh·juh·buhl TASKS

"I couldn't put the book down because the plot was so gripping."

ahy KUU·duhnt PUUT dhuh BUUK DOWN buh·KUHZ dhuh PLAHT wuhz SOH GRIH·puhng

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "down" 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 "DOWN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.