j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce jeopardy in American English
JEH·per·dee
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Americans pronounce jeopardy as JEH-per-dee (/ˈdʒɛpərdi/). In "jeopardy", 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, and it's one of the defining features of casual American English. So instead of JEH·per·tee, you get JEH·per·dee. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Double jeopardy prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "jeopardy".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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.
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 "jeopardy" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 "jeopardy", 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.
JEH-per-tee→JEH·per·dee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch JEH — keep everything else short and quick.
jeh·PER·DEE→JEH·per·dee
03
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "jeopardy" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "JEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "JEH-per-dee" 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 "jeopardy"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "jeopardy" sounds closer to "JEH-per-dee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
How do I pronounce the R in "jeopardy"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "jeopardy" 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 "JEH-per-dee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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