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 number in American English
NUHM·ber
Start here
Americans pronounce number as NUHM-ber (/ˈnʌmbər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He wears jersey number ten and plays in the midfield".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "number".
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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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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 NUHM — keep everything else short and quick.
nuhm·BER→NUHM·ber
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "number" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "NUHM" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "NUHM-ber" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "number"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "number" 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 "NUHM-ber" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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