h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce heavily in American English
HEH·vuh·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce heavily as HEH-vuh-lee (/ˈhɛvəli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The artist's style is heavily influenced by the cubist movement" or "Governments are investing heavily in green infrastructure projects" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "heavily".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
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 "heavily" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Governments are investing heavily in green infrastructure projects."
GUH·vern·muhnts er ihn·VEH·stuhng HEH·vuh·lee ihn GREEN IHN·fruh·struhk·cher PRAH·jehkts
"Tech giants are investing heavily in artificial intelligence research."
TEHK JAHY·uhnts er ihn·VEH·stuhng HEH·vuh·lee uhn ar·tuh·FIH·shuhl ihn·TEH·luh·juhns REE·surch
"The artist's style is heavily influenced by the cubist movement."
dhee AR·tuhsts STAHYL uhz HEH·vuh·lee IHN·floo·uhnst bahy dhuh KYOO·buhst MOOV·muhnt
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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 HEH — keep everything else short and quick.
heh·VUH·LEE→HEH·vuh·lee
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
HEH·VUH·lee→HEH·vuh·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "heavily" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "HEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "HEH-vuh-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "heavily" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "HEH-vuh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "heavily" 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 "HEH-vuh-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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