ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
How to pronounce emotionally in American English
ih·MOH·shuh·nuh·lee
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Americans pronounce emotionally as ih-MOH-shuh-nuh-lee (/ɪˈmoʊʃənəli/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The custody battle over the children was emotionally draining".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "emotionally".
5 syllables, 9 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.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch MOH — keep everything else short and quick.
IH·moh·SHUH·NUH·LEE→ih·MOH·shuh·nuh·lee
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
ih·MOH·SHUH·nuh·lee→ih·MOH·shuh·nuh·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "emotionally" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "MOH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ih-MOH-shuh-nuh-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "emotionally" 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 "ih-MOH-shuh-nuh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "emotionally" 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 "ih-MOH-shuh-nuh-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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