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 irresponsible in American English
ih·ruh·SPAHN·suh·buhl
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Americans pronounce irresponsible as ih-ruh-SPAHN-suh-buhl (/ˌɪrəˈspɑnsəbəl/). Stress falls on the third syllable — keep everything else short and quick.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "irresponsible".
5 syllables, 12 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
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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 third syllable, not the others. Stretch SPAHN — keep everything else short and quick.
IH·RUH·spahn·SUH·BUHL→IH·ruh·SPAHN·suh·buhl
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.
ih·RUH·SPAHN·suh·buhl→IH·ruh·SPAHN·suh·buhl
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "irresponsible" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the third syllable — say "SPAHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ih-ruh-SPAHN-suh-buhl" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "irresponsible" 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-ruh-SPAHN-suh-buhl" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "irresponsible" 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-ruh-SPAHN-suh-buhl" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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