m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce maritime in American English
MAIR·uh·tahym
Start here
Americans pronounce maritime as MAIR-uh-tahym (/ˈmɛrəˌɾaɪm/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The maritime dispute has been referred to international courts".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "maritime".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
air/ɛr/
Start with the 'eh' vowel mouth position. Pull the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch MAIR — keep everything else short and quick.
mair·UH·TAHYM→MAIR·uh·TAHYM
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
MAIR·UH·tahym→MAIR·uh·TAHYM
03
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 "maritime" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MAIR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MAIR-uh-tahym" 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 "maritime"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "maritime" sounds closer to "MAIR-uh-tahym" 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 second syllable in "maritime" 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 "MAIR-uh-tahym" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "maritime"?
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.
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