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 feeder in American English
FEE·der
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Americans pronounce feeder as FEE-der (/ˈfidər/). In "feeder", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. So instead of FEE·ter, you get FEE·der. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He set up a bird feeder in his backyard to attract finches".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "feeder".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
d/d/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Same as Flap T — a quick tap without stopping airflow.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "feeder", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
FEE-ter→FEE·der
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch FEE — keep everything else short and quick.
fee·DER→FEE·der
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 "feeder" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "FEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "FEE-der" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "feeder"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "feeder" sounds closer to "FEE-der" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
How do I pronounce the R in "feeder"?
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 "feeder" 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 "FEE-der" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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