Americans pronounce looking as LUU-kuhng (/ˈlʊkɪŋ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I'm looking for my car keys" or "What is it you're looking for?" — more examples below.
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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.
Bring the corners of your lips in slightly so they push forward, but keep them relaxed. Lift the back of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
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 LUU — 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.
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