ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
How to pronounce early in American English
UR·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce early as UR-lee (/ˈɜrli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "It's too early to make a decision" or "The early bird learns the first word" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "early".
2 syllables, 3 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.
In real conversation
Hear "early" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He wakes up early to milk the cows every morning."
hee WAYKS UHP UR·lee tuh MIHLK dhuh KOWZ EHV·ree MOR·nuhng
"I prefer shopping early in the morning when the store is empty."
ahy pruh·FUR SHAH·puhng UR·lee ihn dhuh MOR·nuhng wehn dhuh STOR ihz EHMP·tee
"I prefer to wake up early so I have time to exercise before work."
ahy pruh·FUR tuh WAYK UHP UR·lee SOH ahy hav TAHYM tuh EHK·ser·sahyz buh·FOR WURK
"It's too early to make a decision."
ihts TOO UR·lee tuh MAYK uh duh·SIH·zhuhn
"She learned about compound interest and started investing early."
shee LURND uh·BOWT KAHM·pownd IHN·truhst and STAR·duhd ihn·VEH·stuhng UR·lee
"She sought help early when she recognized she was struggling."
shee SAHT HEHLP UR·lee wehn shee REH·kuhg·nahyzd shee wuhz STRUH·gluhng
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch UR — keep everything else short and quick.
ur·LEE→UR·lee
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "early" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "UR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "UR-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "early"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "early" 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 "UR-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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