m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce monthly in American English
MUHNTH·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce monthly as MUHNTH-lee (/ˈmʌnθli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I bought a monthly pass for unlimited subway rides" or "The lease agreement specifies the monthly rent amount" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "monthly".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
th/θ/
Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "monthly" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I bought a monthly pass for unlimited subway rides."
ahy BAHT uh MUHNTH·lee PAS fer uhn·LIH·muh·tuhd SUHB·way RAHYDZ
"I created a monthly budget to track my income and expenses carefully."
ahy kree·AY·duhd uh MUHNTH·lee BUH·juht tuh TRAK mahy IHN·kuhm and uhk·SPEHN·suhz KAIR·fuh·lee
"The lease agreement specifies the monthly rent amount."
dhuh LEES uh·GREE·muhnt SPEH·suh·fahyz dhuh MUHNTH·lee REHNT uh·MOWNT
"The safety committee meets monthly to review workplace conditions."
dhuh SAYF·tee kuh·MIH·dee MEETS MUHNTH·lee tuh ruh·VYOO WURK·plays kuhn·DIH·shuhnz
"I use a budgeting app to categorize all of my monthly expenses."
ahy YOOZ uh BUH·juh·duhng AP tuh KA·duh·guh·rahyz AHL uhv mahy MUHNTH·lee uhk·SPEHN·suhz
"The cost of living increase affected how much I could save monthly."
dhuh kahst uhv LIH·vuhng IHN·krees uh·FEHK·tuhd HOW muhch ahy kuud SAYV MUHNTH·lee
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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 MUHNTH — keep everything else short and quick.
muhnth·LEE→MUHNTH·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "monthly" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MUHNTH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MUHNTH-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "monthly" 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 "MUHNTH-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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