m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce mutates in American English
MYOO·tayts
Start here
Americans pronounce mutates as MYOO-tayts (/ˈmjuˌɾeɪts/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The virus mutates rapidly, making it difficult to treat".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "mutates".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
yoo/ju/
Start with the tongue mid-front raised high, almost touching the roof of the mouth (but not touching). Glide into a tight lip circle as the tongue back lifts.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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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 MYOO — keep everything else short and quick.
myoo·TAYTS→MYOO·TAYTS
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "mutates" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "MYOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "MYOO-tayts" 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 "mutates"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "mutates" sounds closer to "MYOO-tayts" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Is the American pronunciation of "mutates" 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 "MYOO-tayts" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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