How to pronounce literally in American English

IPA /ˈlɪɾərəli/ Syllables 4 · lih·ter·uh·lee Stress 1st syllable

LIH·ter·uh·lee

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Americans pronounce literally as LIH-ter-uh-lee (/ˈlɪɾərəli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick.

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Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Common mistakes

Stressing the wrong syllable.

Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch LIH — keep everything else short and quick.

Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.

Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "literally".

4 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then 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.

ih/ɪ/

Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.

t/t/

Flap

Quickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.

er/ər/

Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.

uh/ʌ/

Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.

l/l/

Syllabic

The schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.

ee/i/

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

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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.

Stressing the wrong syllable.

Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch LIH — keep everything else short and quick.

lih·TER·UH·LEE→LIH·ter·uh·lee

Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.

Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.

LIH·ter·UH·lee→LIH·ter·uh·lee

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 "literally" stressed in American English?

Stress falls on the first syllable — say "LIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "LIH-ter-uh-lee" 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 "literally"?

In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "literally" sounds closer to "LIH-ter-uh-lee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.

Why does the third syllable in "literally" reduce to "uh"?

Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "LIH-ter-uh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.

How do I pronounce the R in "literally"?

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.

Now you try.

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Overall assessment

Common mistakes

Stressing the wrong syllable.

Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.

Every sound in "literally".

Words that work the same way.

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

Stressing the wrong syllable.

Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.

Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.

Questions people ask about this.

Stop reading about "literally". Start saying it.