uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce emergency in American English
uh·MUR·juhn·see
Start here
Americans pronounce emergency as uh-MUR-juhn-see (/əˈmɜrdʒənsi/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She created an emergency fund covering six months of living expenses" or "Emergency contact numbers are posted on the bulletin board near the exit" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "emergency".
4 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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 "emergency" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Emergency contact numbers are posted on the bulletin board near the exit."
uh·MUR·juhn·see KAHN·takt NUHM·berz er POH·stuhd ahn dhuh BUU·luh·tuhn BORD NEER dhee EHG·zuht
"She created an emergency fund covering six months of living expenses."
shee kree·AY·duhd uhn uh·MUR·juhn·see FUHND KUH·ver·uhng SIHKS MUHNTHS uhv LIH·vuhng uhk·SPEHN·suhz
"Emergency drills are scheduled quarterly to ensure everyone knows the procedure."
uh·MUR·juhn·see DRIHLZ er SKEH·juhld KWOR·ter·lee tuh uhn·SHUUR EHV·ree·wuhn NOHZ dhuh pruh·SEE·jer
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "emergency", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
emergency→uh·MUR·juhn·see
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch MUR — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·mur·JUHN·SEE→uh·MUR·juhn·see
03
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.
UH·MUR·juhn·see→uh·MUR·juhn·see
04
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 "emergency" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "MUR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-MUR-juhn-see" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "emergency" 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 "uh-MUR-juhn-see" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "emergency"?
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 "emergency" 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 "uh-MUR-juhn-see" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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