uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce explain in American English
uhk·SPLAYN
Start here
Americans pronounce explain as uhk-SPLAYN (/əkˈspleɪn/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Could you please explain that again?" or "He tried to explain the complex problem" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "explain".
2 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.
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.
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.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
In real conversation
Hear "explain" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Could you please explain that again?"
kuud yuh PLEEZ uhk·SPLAYN dhat uh·GEHN
"Explain the nature of the chaotic state agency."
uhk·SPLAYN dhuh NAY·cher uhv dhuh kay·AH·duhk STAYT AY·juhn·see
"He tried to explain the complex problem."
hee TRAHYD tuh uhk·SPLAYN dhuh KAHM·plehks PRAH·bluhm
"She asked the teaching assistant to explain the grading scale."
shee ASKT dhuh TEE·chuhng uh·SIH·stuhnt tuh uhk·SPLAYN dhuh GRAY·duhng SKAYL
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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 SPLAYN — keep everything else short and quick.
UHK·splayn→uhk·SPLAYN
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.
UHK·SPLAYN→uhk·SPLAYN
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "explain" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SPLAYN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uhk-SPLAYN" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "explain" 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 "uhk-SPLAYN" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "explain" 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 "uhk-SPLAYN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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