uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce incredibly in American English
uhn·KREH·duh·blee
Start here
Americans pronounce incredibly as uhn-KREH-duh-blee (/ənˈkrɛdəbli/). In "incredibly", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. So instead of uhn·KREH·tuh·blee, you get uhn·KREH·duh·blee. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "This material feels incredibly soft" or "I bet the heavy metal section is incredibly deafening" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "incredibly" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "incredibly".
4 syllables, 10 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, 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.
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.
d/d/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Same as Flap T — a quick tap without stopping airflow.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
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 "incredibly" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I bet the heavy metal section is incredibly deafening."
ahy BEHT dhuh HEH·vee MEH·duhl SEHK·shuhn ihz uhn·KREH·duh·blee DEH·fuh·nuhng
"She felt incredibly frustrated when the plan fell through."
shee FEHLT uhn·KREH·duh·blee FRUH·stray·duhd wehn dhuh PLAN FEHL throo
"The hospital staff were incredibly kind and professional."
dhuh HAH·spuh·tuhl STAF wer uhn·KREH·duh·blee KAHYND and pruh·FEH·shuh·nuhl
"The special effects make the sci-fi world look incredibly realistic."
dhuh SPEH·shuhl uh·FEHKTS MAYK dhuh SAHY fahy WURLD LUUK uhn·KREH·duh·blee ree·uh·LIH·stuhk
"This material feels incredibly soft."
dhihs muh·TEER·ee·uhl FEELZ uhn·KREH·duh·blee sahft
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "incredibly", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
uhn-KREH-tuh-blee→uhn·KREH·duh·blee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch KREH — keep everything else short and quick.
UHN·kreh·DUH·BLEE→uhn·KREH·duh·blee
03
Pronouncing the first syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
UHN·KREH·duh·blee→uhn·KREH·duh·blee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "incredibly" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "KREH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uhn-KREH-duh-blee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "incredibly"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "incredibly" sounds closer to "uhn-KREH-duh-blee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the first syllable in "incredibly" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "uhn-KREH-duh-blee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "incredibly" 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 "uhn-KREH-duh-blee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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