g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce greenhouse in American English
GREEN·hows
Start here
Americans pronounce greenhouse as GREEN-hows (/ˈgrinˌhaʊs/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The greenhouse allows plants to grow year-round" or "The greenhouse effect traps heat in the earth's atmosphere" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "greenhouse".
2 syllables, 7 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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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.
h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
ow/aʊ/
Start with a dropped jaw and flat tongue. Glide into a relaxed, slightly rounded lip position as the back of the tongue stretches up.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "greenhouse" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The government implemented policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
dhuh GUH·vern·muhnt IHM·pluh·mehn·tuhd PAH·luh·seez tuh ruh·DOOS GREEN·hows GAS uh·MIH·shuhnz
"The greenhouse allows plants to grow year-round."
dhuh GREEN·hows uh·LOWZ PLANTS tuh GROH YEER ROWND
"The greenhouse effect traps heat in the earth's atmosphere."
dhuh GREEN·hows uh·FEHKT TRAPS HEET ihn dhee URTHS AT·muhs·feer
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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 GREEN — keep everything else short and quick.
green·HOWS→GREEN·HOWS
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "greenhouse" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "GREEN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "GREEN-hows" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "greenhouse" 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 "GREEN-hows" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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