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 nephew in American English
NEH·fyoo
Start here
Americans pronounce nephew as NEH-fyoo (/ˈnɛfju/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She is the legal guardian of her younger nephew".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "nephew".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
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.
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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 NEH — keep everything else short and quick.
neh·FYOO→NEH·fyoo
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "nephew" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "NEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "NEH-fyoo" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "nephew" 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 "NEH-fyoo" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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