ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
How to pronounce initially in American English
ih·NIH·shuh·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce initially as ih-NIH-shuh-lee (/ɪˈnɪʃəli/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The national mission was initially shocked" or "The economic recovery has been slower than initially anticipated" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "initially".
4 syllables, 7 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.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
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 "initially" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Admittedly, I was initially skeptical, but now I am completely convinced."
uhd·MIH·duhd·lee ahy wuhz ih·NIH·shuh·lee SKEHP·tuh·kuhl buht NOW ahy uhm kuhm·PLEET·lee kuhn·VIHNST
"The economic recovery has been slower than initially anticipated."
dhee eh·kuh·NAH·muhk ruh·KUH·vuh·ree huhz bihn SLOH·er dhuhn ih·NIH·shuh·lee an·TIH·suh·pay·duhd
"The national mission was initially shocked."
dhuh NA·shuh·nuhl MIH·shuhn wuhz ih·NIH·shuh·lee SHAHKT
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch NIH — keep everything else short and quick.
IH·nih·SHUH·LEE→ih·NIH·shuh·lee
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
ih·NIH·SHUH·lee→ih·NIH·shuh·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "initially" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "NIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ih-NIH-shuh-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "initially" 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 "ih-NIH-shuh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "initially" 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 "ih-NIH-shuh-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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