m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce minimum in American English
MIH·nuh·muhm
Start here
Americans pronounce minimum as MIH-nuh-muhm (/ˈmɪnəməm/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The essay requires a minimum of five scholarly sources".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "minimum".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
m/m/
SyllabicThe schwa before M disappears — M becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to M.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
m/m/
SyllabicThe schwa before M disappears — M becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to M.
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "minimum", the short unstressed vowel before "m" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "m" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
minimum→MIH·nuh·muhm
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch MIH — keep everything else short and quick.
mih·NUH·MUHM→MIH·nuh·muhm
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.
MIH·NUH·muhm→MIH·nuh·muhm
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "minimum" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MIH-nuh-muhm" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "minimum" 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 "MIH-nuh-muhm" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "minimum" 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 "MIH-nuh-muhm" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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