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.
How to pronounce narrow in American English
NA·roh
Start here
Americans pronounce narrow as NA-roh (/ˈnæroʊ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I struggled to narrow down my topic to a manageable scope".
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Every sound in "narrow".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
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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 NA — keep everything else short and quick.
na·ROH→NA·roh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "narrow" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "NA" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "NA-roh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "narrow" 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 "NA-roh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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