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 nothing in American English
NUH·thuhng
Start here
Americans pronounce nothing as NUH-thuhng (/ˈnʌθəŋ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Something is better than nothing" or "Nothing healthy grows in the filthy bath" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "nothing".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
th/θ/
Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
In real conversation
Hear "nothing" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Nothing healthy grows in the filthy bath."
NUH·thuhng HEHL·thee grohz ihn dhuh FIHL·thee BATH
"Something is better than nothing."
SUHM·thuhng ihz BEH·der dhuhn NUH·thuhng
"That was absolutely nothing to worry about."
DHAT wuhz ab·suh·LOOT·lee NUH·thuhng tuh WUR·ee uh·BOWT
"Winner takes nothing in this nonsense game."
WIH·ner TAYKS NUH·thuhng ihn dhihs NAHN·sehns GAYM
"The truth is that I have nothing to hide."
dhuh TROOTH ihz dhat ahy hav NUH·thuhng tuh HAHYD
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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 NUH — keep everything else short and quick.
nuh·THUHNG→NUH·thuhng
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
NUH·THUHNG→NUH·thuhng
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "nothing" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "NUH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "NUH-thuhng" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "nothing" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "NUH-thuhng" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "nothing" 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 "NUH-thuhng" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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