h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hired in American English
HAHY·erd
Start here
Americans pronounce hired as HAHY-erd (/ˈhaɪərd/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She hired a lawyer to draft her last will and testament" or "We hired a plumber to fix the clogged drain in the bathroom" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "hired".
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.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "hired" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He hired a personal trainer to help him lose weight and build muscle."
hee HAHY·erd uh PUR·suh·nuhl TRAY·ner tuh HEHLP hihm LOOZ WAYT and BIHLD MUH·suhl
"She hired a lawyer to draft her last will and testament."
shee HAHY·erd uh LAH·yer tuh DRAFT her last WIHL and TEH·stuh·muhnt
"She hired a plumber to fix the persistent leak under the sink."
shee HAHY·erd uh PLUH·mer tuh FIHKS dhuh per·SIH·stuhnt LEEK UHN·der dhuh SIHNGK
"We hired a plumber to fix the clogged drain in the bathroom."
wee HAHY·erd uh PLUH·mer tuh FIHKS dhuh KLAHGD DRAYN ihn dhuh BATH·room
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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·ERD→HAHY·erd
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hired" 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-erd" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "hired"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "hired" 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-erd" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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