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.
How to pronounce office in American English
AH·fuhs
Start here
Americans pronounce office as AH-fuhs (/ˈɑfəs/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I left my laptop at the office" or "I have to go to the post office" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "office".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "office" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I bought a small pot for the new office plant."
ahy BAHT uh SMAHL PAHT fer dhuh noo AH·fuhs PLANT
"I have to go to the post office."
ahy haf tuh GOH tuh dhuh POHST AH·fuhs
"I left my laptop at the office."
ahy LEHFT mahy LAP·tahp uht dhee AH·fuhs
"I need to go to the bank, the post office, and the grocery store."
ahy NEED tuh GOH tuh dhuh BANGK dhuh POHST AH·fuhs and dhuh GROH·suh·ree STOR
"I renewed my driver's license at the motor vehicle office."
ahy ruh·NOOD mahy DRAHY·verz LAHY·suhns uht dhuh MOH·der VEE·uh·kuhl AH·fuhs
"I think his office is on the third floor."
ahy thihngk hihz AH·fuhs ihz ahn dhuh thurd flor
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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 AH — keep everything else short and quick.
ah·FUHS→AH·fuhs
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.
AH·FUHS→AH·fuhs
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "office" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "AH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "AH-fuhs" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "office" 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 "AH-fuhs" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "office" 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 "AH-fuhs" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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