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 ferry in American English
FEH·ree
Start here
Americans pronounce ferry as FEH-ree (/ˈfɛri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The ferry crosses the river every hour on the hour".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "ferry".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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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 FEH — keep everything else short and quick.
feh·REE→FEH·ree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "ferry" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "FEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "FEH-ree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "ferry" 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 "FEH-ree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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