m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce meetings in American English
MEE·tuhngz
Start here
Americans pronounce meetings as MEE-tuhngz (/ˈmiɾɪŋz/). In "meetings", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as MEE·tuhngz. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She is always prepared for meetings" or "I have meetings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "meetings" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "meetings".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "meetings" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I have meetings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday."
ahy hav MEE·duhngz ahn MUHN·day WEHNZ·day and FRAHY·day
"She is always prepared for meetings."
shee ihz AHL·wayz pruh·PAIRD fer MEE·duhngz
"Virtual meetings have become the norm for remote collaboration."
VUR·choo·uhl MEE·duhngz huhv buh·KUHM dhuh NORM fer ruh·MOHT kuh·la·buh·RAY·shuhn
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "meetings", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
MEE-tuhngz→MEE·tuhngz
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch MEE — keep everything else short and quick.
mee·TUHNGZ→MEE·tuhngz
03
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.
MEE·TUHNGZ→MEE·tuhngz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "meetings" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MEE-tuhngz" 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 "meetings"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "meetings" sounds closer to "MEE-tuhngz" 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 "meetings" 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 "MEE-tuhngz" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "meetings" 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 "MEE-tuhngz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "meetings". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.