Americans pronounce laughter as LAF-ter (/ˈlæftər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The baby shower was filled with laughter and thoughtful gifts".
Record yourself saying "laughter" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
2 syllables, 5 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.
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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 LAF — keep everything else short and quick.
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.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.