How to pronounce live in American English

IPA /lɪv/ Syllables 1 · lihv Stress 1st syllable

LIHV

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Americans pronounce live as LIHV (/lɪv/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Love to live" or "They live in Chicago, don't they?" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "live".

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.

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.

v/v/

Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.

In real conversation

Hear "live" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"He appreciates the immediacy and risk of live performance."

hee uh·PREE·shee·ayts dhee uh·MEE·dee·uh·see and RIHSK uhv LAHYV per·FOR·muhns

"Horses are social animals that live in herds."

HOR·suhz er SOH·shuhl A·nuh·muhlz dhuht LIHV ihn HURDZ

"I prefer listening to live music because of the energy in the crowd."

ahy pruh·FUR LIH·suh·nuhng tuh LAHYV MYOO·zuhk buh·KUHZ uhv dhee EH·ner·jee ihn dhuh KROWD

"Love to live."

LUHV tuh LIHV

"The event was broadcast live to millions of viewers."

dhee uh·VEHNT wuhz BRAHD·kast LAHYV tuh MIHL·yuhnz uhv VYOO·erz

"They live further down the street."

dhay LIHV FUR·dher DOWN dhuh STREET

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Questions

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