h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hesitate in American English
HEH·zuh·tayt
Start here
Americans pronounce hesitate as HEH-zuh-tayt (/ˈhɛzəˌɾeɪt/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask" or "Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "hesitate".
3 syllables, 7 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.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
In real conversation
Hear "hesitate" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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·ZUH·TAYT→HEH·zuh·TAYT
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·ZUH·tayt→HEH·zuh·TAYT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hesitate" 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-zuh-tayt" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "hesitate"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "hesitate" sounds closer to "HEH-zuh-tayt" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the second syllable in "hesitate" 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-zuh-tayt" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "hesitate" 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-zuh-tayt" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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