h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hesitation in American English
heh·zuh·TAY·shuhn
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Americans pronounce hesitation as heh-zuh-TAY-shuhn (/ˌhɛzəˈteɪʃən/). Stress falls on the third syllable — keep everything else short and quick.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "hesitation".
4 syllables, 9 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/
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.
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.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
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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 third syllable, not the others. Stretch TAY — keep everything else short and quick.
HEH·ZUH·tay·SHUHN→HEH·zuh·TAY·shuhn
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·TAY·shuhn→HEH·zuh·TAY·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hesitation" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the third syllable — say "TAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "heh-zuh-TAY-shuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "hesitation" 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-TAY-shuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "hesitation" 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-TAY-shuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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