Americans pronounce laboratory as LA-bruh-tor-ee (/ˈlæbrəˌɾɔri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art technology" or "The laboratory is equipped with advanced scientific instruments" — more examples below.
Record yourself saying "laboratory" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
4 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
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.
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
Quickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
Start with the 'aw' jaw drop and rounded lips. Pull the tongue back and up while keeping the lips rounded for the R.
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch LA — keep everything else short and quick.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
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.
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