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.
How to pronounce eyewitness in American English
AHY·wiht·nuhs
Start here
Americans pronounce eyewitness as AHY-wiht-nuhs (/ˈaɪˌwɪtnəs/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He questioned the credibility of the eyewitness account".
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "eyewitness" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "eyewitness".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 "eyewitness", the "t" 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.
eyewitness→AHY·WIHT·nuhs
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch AHY — keep everything else short and quick.
ahy·WIHT·NUHS→AHY·WIHT·nuhs
03
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.
AHY·wiht·NUHS→AHY·WIHT·nuhs
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "eyewitness" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "AHY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "AHY-wiht-nuhs" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "eyewitness" 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 "AHY-wiht-nuhs" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "eyewitness" 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 "AHY-wiht-nuhs" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "eyewitness". 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.