m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce memories in American English
MEH·muh·reez
Start here
Americans pronounce memories as MEH-muh-reez (/ˈmɛməriz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The scrapbooking project allows me to preserve family memories".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "memories".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
r/r/
SyllabicThe schwa before R disappears — R becomes the vowel of the syllable. This is the 'er' sound without a distinct vowel before it.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
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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 MEH — keep everything else short and quick.
meh·MUH·REEZ→MEH·muh·reez
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.
MEH·MUH·reez→MEH·muh·reez
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "memories" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MEH-muh-reez" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "memories" 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 "MEH-muh-reez" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "memories" 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 "MEH-muh-reez" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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