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 night in American English
NAHYT
Start here
Americans pronounce night as NAHYT (/naɪt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "One fine night" or "The party is on Saturday night" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "night" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "night".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "night" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Did you happen to catch the game last night on television?"
dihd yuh HA·puhn tuh KACH dhuh GAYM last NAHYT ahn TEH·luh·vih·zhuhn
"He pointed out the constellations in the night sky to his son."
hee POYN·tuhd OWT dhuh kahn·stuh·LAY·shuhnz ihn dhuh NAHYT SKAHY tuh hihz SUHN
"He was called to testify about what he saw that night."
hee wuhz KAHLD tuh TEH·stuh·fahy uh·BOWT wuht hee SAH dhat NAHYT
"He worked all night so he could finish the project."
hee WURKT AHL NAHYT SOH hee kuud FIH·nuhsh dhuh PRAH·jehkt
"I got bitten by a mosquito last night."
ahy GAHT BIH·tuhn bahy uh muh·SKEE·doh last NAHYT
"I had a strange dream last night."
ahy had uh STRAYNJ DREEM last NAHYT
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 "night", the "t" 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.
night→NAHYT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "night" 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 "NAHYT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "night". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.