How to pronounce flea in American English

IPA /fli/ Syllables 1 · flee Stress 1st syllable

FLEE

Start here

Americans pronounce flea as FLEE (/fli/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He restores old furniture found at flea markets".

Now you try.

Record yourself saying "flea" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.

Ready when you are

Tap the mic to start

Preview your accent profile

Get your accent profile and 5-axes assessment.

Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Unlock the full report in the app

Sound by sound

Every sound in "flea".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

l/l/

Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

In real conversation

Hear "flea" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"He restores old furniture found at flea markets."

hee ruh·STORZ OHLD FUR·nuh·cher FOWND uht FLEE MAR·kuhts

Find another

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Search the entire library

Press / anywhere to focus the search box.

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "flea" 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 "FLEE" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.