m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce monologue in American English
MAH·nuh·lahg
Start here
Americans pronounce monologue as MAH-nuh-lahg (/ˈmɑnəˌlɔɡ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The monologue was delivered with such emotion that people cried".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "monologue".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back 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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "monologue", the "g" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
monologue→MAH·nuh·LAHG
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch MAH — keep everything else short and quick.
mah·NUH·LAHG→MAH·nuh·LAHG
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.
MAH·NUH·lahg→MAH·nuh·LAHG
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "monologue" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MAH-nuh-lahg" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "monologue" 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 "MAH-nuh-lahg" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "monologue" 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 "MAH-nuh-lahg" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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