uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce evaluates in American English
uh·VAL·yoo·ayts
Start here
Americans pronounce evaluates as uh-VAL-yoo-ayts (/əˈvæljueɪts/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The environmental impact assessment evaluates potential risks".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "evaluates".
4 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
yoo/ju/
Start with the tongue mid-front raised high, almost touching the roof of the mouth (but not touching). Glide into a tight lip circle as the tongue back lifts.
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.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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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 VAL — keep everything else short and quick.
UH·val·YOO·AYTS→uh·VAL·yoo·ayts
02
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·VAL·yoo·ayts→uh·VAL·yoo·ayts
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "evaluates" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "VAL" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uh-VAL-yoo-ayts" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "evaluates" 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-VAL-yoo-ayts" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "evaluates" 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-VAL-yoo-ayts" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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