How to pronounce non in American English

IPA /nɑn/ Syllables 1 · nahn Stress 1st syllable

NAHN

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Americans pronounce non as NAHN (/nɑn/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She works for a non-profit organization defending human rights" or "He signed a non-disclosure agreement before joining the company" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "non".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

ah/ɑ/

Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "non" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"He signed a non-disclosure agreement before joining the company."

hee SAHYND uh NAHN duh·SKLOH·zher uh·GREE·muhnt buh·FOR JOY·nuhng dhuh KUHM·puh·nee

"She works for a non-profit organization defending human rights."

shee WURKS fer uh NAHN PRAH·fuht or·guh·nuh·ZAY·shuhn duh·FEHN·duhng HYOO·muhn RAHYTS

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "non" 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 "NAHN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.