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 earth's in American English
URTHS
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Americans pronounce earth's as URTHS (/ˈɜrθs/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The greenhouse effect traps heat in the earth's atmosphere" or "Geologists study the composition and structure of the earth's crust" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "earth's".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
th/θ/
Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "earth's" in the wild.
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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
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 do I pronounce the R in "earth's"?
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 "earth's" 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 "URTHS" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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