h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce harry in American English
HA·ree
Start here
Americans pronounce harry as HA-ree (/ˈhæri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Harry hopes to have a happy holiday home" or "Harry managed to grab a cab back to the flat" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "harry".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "harry" in the wild.
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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 HA — keep everything else short and quick.
ha·REE→HA·ree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "harry" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "HA" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "HA-ree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "harry" 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 "HA-ree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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