How to pronounce gap in American English

IPA /gæp/ Syllables 1 · gap Stress 1st syllable

GAP

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Americans pronounce gap as GAP (/gæp/). You'll hear it in sentences like "A massive gap in candidates was apparent".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "gap".

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

g/g/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.

a/æ/

Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

In real conversation

Hear "gap" in the wild.

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

"A massive gap in candidates was apparent."

uh MA·suhv GAP ihn KAN·duh·dayts wuhz uh·PEH·ruhnt

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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