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 opportunity in American English
ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee
Start here
Americans pronounce opportunity as ah-per-TOO-nuh-tee (/ˌɑpərˈtunəɾi/). In "opportunity", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, and it's one of the defining features of casual American English. It comes out as AH·per·TOO·nuh·tee. Stress falls on the third syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He's thankful for the opportunity" or "This is a fantastic new opportunity for us" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "opportunity".
5 syllables, 9 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "opportunity" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He's thankful for the opportunity."
heez THANGK·fuhl fer dhee ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee
"I look forward to the opportunity to work together on this initiative."
ahy LUUK FOR·werd tuh dhee ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee tuh WURK tuh·GEH·dher ahn dhihs ih·NIH·shuh·tihv
"Please confirm receipt of this email at your earliest opportunity."
PLEEZ kuhn·FURM ruh·SEET uhv dhihs EE·mayl uht yer UR·lee·uhst ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee
"The foundation works to eliminate barriers to opportunity for all."
dhuh fown·DAY·shuhn WURKS tuh uh·LIH·muh·nayt BA·ree·erz tuh ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee fer AHL
"This is a fantastic new opportunity for us."
dhihs ihz uh fan·TA·stuhk noo ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee fer uhs
"We all thought it was an awesome opportunity."
wee AHL THAHT iht wuhz uhn AH·suhm ah·per·TOO·nuh·tee
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "opportunity", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
ah-per-TOO-nuh-tee→AH·per·TOO·nuh·tee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the third syllable, not the others. Stretch TOO — keep everything else short and quick.
AH·PER·too·NUH·TEE→AH·per·TOO·nuh·tee
03
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the third syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
ah·per·TOO·NUH·tee→AH·per·TOO·nuh·tee
04
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 "opportunity" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the third syllable — say "TOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ah-per-TOO-nuh-tee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "opportunity"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "opportunity" sounds closer to "ah-per-TOO-nuh-tee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the fourth syllable in "opportunity" 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-per-TOO-nuh-tee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "opportunity"?
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.
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