ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
How to pronounce eight in American English
AYT
Start here
Americans pronounce eight as AYT (/eɪt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Eight plates are on the table" or "I have an appointment at eight o'clock" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "eight".
1 syllable, 2 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
In real conversation
Hear "eight" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Eight grey plates were placed on the table."
AYT GRAY PLAYTS wer PLAYST ahn dhuh TAY·buhl
"Eight people had to wait to see how much they ate."
AYT PEE·puhl had tuh WAYT tuh SEE HOW MUHCH dhay AYT
"I have an appointment at eight o'clock."
ahy hav uhn uh·POYNT·muhnt uht AYT uh·KLAHK
"Eight plates are on the table."
AYT PLAYTS er ahn dhuh TAY·buhl
"He ate eight apples and gained a lot of weight."
hee AYT AYT A·puhlz uhnd GAYND uh LAHT uhv WAYT
"I will wait for eight minutes to check my weight."
ahy wihl WAYT fer AYT MIH·nuhts tuh CHEHK mahy WAYT
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "eight", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
eight→AYT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "eight" 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 "AYT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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