h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce highway in American English
HAHY·way
Start here
Americans pronounce highway as HAHY-way (/ˈhaɪˌweɪ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The highway traffic was terrible, so I took an alternate route" or "The police officer pulled him over for speeding on the highway" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "highway".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "highway" 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 HAHY — keep everything else short and quick.
hahy·WAY→HAHY·WAY
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "highway" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "HAHY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "HAHY-way" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "highway" 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 "HAHY-way" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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