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 injury in American English
IHN·juh·ree
Start here
Americans pronounce injury as IHN-juh-ree (/ˈɪndʒəri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The ankle brace provides support for his injury" or "He wore protective pads to prevent injury during the game" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "injury".
3 syllables, 6 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.
j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
r/r/
SyllabicThe schwa before R disappears — R becomes the vowel of the syllable. This is the 'er' sound without a distinct vowel before it.
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 "injury" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He suffered a sports injury and is going to physical therapy."
hee SUH·ferd uh SPORTS IHN·juh·ree and ihz GOH·uhng tuh FIH·zuh·kuhl THEH·ruh·pee
"He wore protective pads to prevent injury during the game."
hee WOR pruh·TEHK·tuhv PADZ tuh pruh·VEHNT IHN·juh·ree DUUR·uhng dhuh GAYM
"She sought damages for the injury she sustained in the accident."
shee SAHT DA·muh·juhz fer dhee IHN·juh·ree shee suh·STAYND ihn dhee AK·suh·duhnt
"The ankle brace provides support for his injury."
dhee ANG·kuhl BRAYS pruh·VAHYDZ suh·PORT fer hihz IHN·juh·ree
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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 IHN — keep everything else short and quick.
ihn·JUH·REE→IHN·juh·ree
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
IHN·JUH·ree→IHN·juh·ree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "injury" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "IHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "IHN-juh-ree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "injury" 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 "IHN-juh-ree" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "injury" 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 "IHN-juh-ree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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