f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
How to pronounce father in American English
FAH·dher
Start here
Americans pronounce father as FAH-dher (/ˈfɑðər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Father and mother" or "My father is calm" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "father".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
dh/ð/
Place your tongue tip between or behind your front teeth, turn your vocal cords on, and push air through the gap.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
In real conversation
Hear "father" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Father and mother."
FAH·dher and MUH·dher
"Mother and father think they should breathe deeply."
MUH·dher uhnd FAH·dher THIHNGK dhay shuhd BREEDH DEE·plee
"My father is calm."
mahy FAH·dher ihz KAHM
"My mother and father are better together."
mahy MUH·dher and FAH·dher ar BEH·der tuh·GEH·dher
"She has the power of attorney to make decisions for her father."
shee huhz dhuh POW·er uhv uh·TUR·nee tuh MAYK duh·SIH·zhuhnz fer her FAH·dher
"This is my brother and that is my father."
DHIHS ihz mahy BRUH·dher and DHAT ihz mahy FAH·dher
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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 FAH — keep everything else short and quick.
fah·DHER→FAH·dher
02
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 "father" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "FAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "FAH-dher" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "father"?
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 "father" 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 "FAH-dher" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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