How to pronounce leaf in American English

IPA /lif/ Syllables 1 · leef Stress 1st syllable

LEEF

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Americans pronounce leaf as LEEF (/lif/). You'll hear it in sentences like "A little yellow leaf".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "leaf".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "leaf" in the wild.

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"A little yellow leaf."

uh LIH·duhl YEH·loh LEEF

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Questions

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Is the American pronunciation of "leaf" 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 "LEEF" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.