eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
How to pronounce emphasize in American English
EHM·fuh·sahyz
Start here
Americans pronounce emphasize as EHM-fuh-sahyz (/ˈɛmfəˌsaɪz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I want to emphasize the importance of acting quickly on this opportunity".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "emphasize".
3 syllables, 7 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.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "emphasize" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 EHM — keep everything else short and quick.
ehm·FUH·SAHYZ→EHM·fuh·SAHYZ
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
EHM·FUH·sahyz→EHM·fuh·SAHYZ
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "emphasize" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "EHM" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "EHM-fuh-sahyz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "emphasize" 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 "EHM-fuh-sahyz" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "emphasize" 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 "EHM-fuh-sahyz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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