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 expired in American English
ihk·SPAHY·urd
Start here
Americans pronounce expired as ihk-SPAHY-urd (/ɪkˈspaɪərd/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The repairman said the appliance warranty expired last month" or "The statute of limitations has expired for this particular offense" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "expired" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "expired".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
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.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "expired" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The repairman said the appliance warranty expired last month."
dhuh ruh·PAIR·man sehd dhee uh·PLAHY·uhns WOR·uhn·tee ihk·SPAHY·urd last muhnth
"The statute of limitations has expired for this particular offense."
dhuh STA·choot uhv lih·muh·TAY·shuhnz huhz ihk·SPAHY·urd fer dhihs per·TIH·kyuh·ler uh·FEHNS
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 "expired", the "d" 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.
expired→ihk·SPAHY·urd
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch SPAHY — keep everything else short and quick.
IHK·spahy·URD→ihk·SPAHY·urd
03
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 "expired" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SPAHY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ihk-SPAHY-urd" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "expired"?
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 "expired" 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 "ihk-SPAHY-urd" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "expired". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.