h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hobby in American English
HAH·bee
Start here
Americans pronounce hobby as HAH-bee (/ˈhɑbi/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She collects rocks and minerals as a hobby" or "He creates bonsai trees as a relaxing hobby" — more examples below.
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Record yourself saying "hobby" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "hobby".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
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 "hobby" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He creates bonsai trees as a relaxing hobby."
hee kree·AYTS BAHN·sahy TREEZ uhz uh ruh·LAK·suhng HAH·bee
"I am thinking of taking up a new hobby this year."
ahy uhm THIHNG·kuhng uhv TAY·kuhng UHP uh noo HAH·bee dhihs YEER
"I find cross-stitching to be a very meditative hobby."
ahy FAHYND KRAHS STIH·chuhng tuh bee uh VEH·ree MEH·duh·tay·tuhv HAH·bee
"She collects rocks and minerals as a hobby."
shee kuh·LEHKTS RAHKS and MIH·ner·uhlz uhz uh HAH·bee
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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 HAH — keep everything else short and quick.
hah·BEE→HAH·bee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hobby" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "HAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "HAH-bee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "hobby" 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 "HAH-bee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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