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 flight in American English
FLAHYT
Start here
Americans pronounce flight as FLAHYT (/flaɪt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Why was the flight cancelled?" or "The flight arrived a little late" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "flight".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "flight" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Because the flight was delayed, I missed my connection."
buh·KUHZ dhuh FLAHYT wuhz duh·LAYD ahy MIHST mahy kuh·NEHK·shuhn
"I need some information about the flight schedule."
ahy NEED suhm ihn·fer·MAY·shuhn uh·BOWT dhuh FLAHYT SKEH·jool
"Is your flight domestic or international?"
ihz yer FLAHYT duh·MEH·stuhk or ihn·ter·NA·shuh·nuhl
"My flight leaves from gate eighteen."
mahy FLAHYT LEEVZ fruhm GAYT ay·TEEN
"Our flight was delayed by about an hour."
owr FLAHYT wuhz duh·LAYD bahy uh·BOWT uhn OWR
"The duration of the flight is about six hours."
dhuh doo·RAY·shuhn uhv dhuh FLAHYT ihz uh·BOWT SIHKS OW·erz
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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 "flight", 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.
flight→FLAHYT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "flight" 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 "FLAHYT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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