m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce marine in American English
muh·REEN
Start here
Americans pronounce marine as muh-REEN (/məˈrin/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Marine biologists study the health of the ocean" or "Plankton is the foundation of the marine food web" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "marine".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
In real conversation
Hear "marine" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He advocates for the protection of marine sanctuaries."
hee AD·vuh·kayts fer dhuh pruh·TEHK·shuhn uhv muh·REEN SANGK·choo·air·eez
"He studies oceanography to understand marine ecosystems."
hee STUH·deez oh·shuh·NAH·gruh·fee tuh uhn·der·STAND muh·REEN EE·koh·sihs·tuhmz
"Overfishing threatens the stability of marine ecosystems."
oh·ver·FIH·shuhng THREH·duhnz dhuh stuh·BIH·luh·tee uhv muh·REEN EE·koh·sihs·tuhmz
"Plastic waste in the oceans is harming marine life severely."
PLA·stuhk WAYST ihn dhee OH·shuhnz ihz HAR·muhng muh·REEN LAHYF suh·VEER·lee
"He is concerned about the effects of plastic pollution on marine life."
hee ihz kuhn·SURND uh·BOWT dhee uh·FEHKTS uhv PLA·stuhk puh·LOO·shuhn ahn muh·REEN LAHYF
"Marine biologists study the health of the ocean."
muh·REEN bahy·AH·luh·juhsts STUH·dee dhuh HEHLTH uhv dhee OH·shuhn
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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.
01
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch REEN — keep everything else short and quick.
MUH·reen→muh·REEN
02
Pronouncing the first syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
MUH·REEN→muh·REEN
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "marine" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "REEN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "muh-REEN" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "marine" 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 "muh-REEN" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "marine" 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 "muh-REEN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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