g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce grandma in American English
GRAN·mah
Start here
Americans pronounce grandma as GRAN-mah (/ˈgrænmɑ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "grandma" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "grandma".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
a/æ/
NasalizedThe tongue relaxes down in the back and the corners of the lips relax before the consonant. This adds a schwa-like 'uh' relaxation after the /æ/. Think of it as 'relaxing out of the vowel' — it is no longer a pure /æ/ sound.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 GRAN — keep everything else short and quick.
gran·MAH→GRAN·mah
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "grandma" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "GRAN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "GRAN-mah" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "grandma" 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 "GRAN-mah" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "grandma". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.