h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hotel in American English
hoh·TEHL
Start here
Americans pronounce hotel as hoh-TEHL (/hoʊˈtɛl/). The L in "hotel" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, and it's one of the defining features of casual American English. It comes out as hoh·TEHL. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The hotel suite smells like sweet fruit" or "The hotel pool is open until ten o'clock" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "hotel".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
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.
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.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
In real conversation
Hear "hotel" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He took a taxi from the airport to the hotel downtown."
hee TUUK uh TAK·see fruhm dhee AIR·port tuh dhuh hoh·TEHL down·TOWN
"The hotel pool is open until ten o'clock."
dhuh hoh·TEHL POOL ihz OH·puhn uhn·TIHL TEHN uh·KLAHK
"The hotel suite smells like sweet fruit."
dhuh hoh·TEHL SWEET SMEHLZ LAHYK SWEET FROOT
"We need to check in at the hotel before three p.m."
wee NEED tuh CHEHK IHN uht dhuh hoh·TEHL buh·FOR THREE pee·EHM
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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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "hotel" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
hotel→hoh·TEHL
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch TEHL — keep everything else short and quick.
HOH·tehl→hoh·TEHL
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hotel" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "TEHL" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "hoh-TEHL" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "hotel" 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 "hoh-TEHL" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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