h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce hungry in American English
HUHNG·gree
Start here
Americans pronounce hungry as HUHNG-gree (/ˈhʌŋgri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Perhaps the hero can help the hungry horse" or "The hungry hunter dug a dozen holes in the dust" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "hungry".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
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 "hungry" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Not a single kernel was left by the hungry colonel."
NAHT uh SIHNG·guhl KUR·nuhl wuhz LEHFT bahy dhuh HUHNG·gree KUR·nuhl
"Perhaps the hero can help the hungry horse."
per·HAPS dhuh HEER·oh kuhn HEHLP dhuh HUHNG·gree HORS
"The hungry hunter dug a dozen holes in the dust."
dhuh HUHNG·gree HUHN·ter DUHG uh DUH·zuhn HOHLZ ihn dhuh DUHST
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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 HUHNG — keep everything else short and quick.
huhng·GREE→HUHNG·gree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "hungry" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "HUHNG" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "HUHNG-gree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "hungry" 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 "HUHNG-gree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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