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 july in American English
joo·LAHY
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Americans pronounce july as joo-LAHY (/dʒuˈlaɪ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "July and June".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "july".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
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.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
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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 LAHY — keep everything else short and quick.
JOO·lahy→joo·LAHY
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "july" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "LAHY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "joo-LAHY" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "july" 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 "joo-LAHY" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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