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 faucet in American English
FAH·suht
Start here
Americans pronounce faucet as FAH-suht (/ˈfɑsət/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He fixed the leaky faucet himself to save on repair costs".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "faucet".
2 syllables, 5 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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "faucet", 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.
faucet→FAH·suht
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch FAH — keep everything else short and quick.
fah·SUHT→FAH·suht
03
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
FAH·SUHT→FAH·suht
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "faucet" 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-suht" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "faucet" 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 "FAH-suht" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "faucet" 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-suht" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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