oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
How to pronounce overtime in American English
OH·ver·tahym
Start here
Americans pronounce overtime as OH-ver-tahym (/ˈoʊvərˌɾaɪm/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He kicked a field goal to win the game in overtime" or "The basketball game went into overtime because of the tie" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "overtime".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips 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.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
In real conversation
Hear "overtime" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 OH — keep everything else short and quick.
oh·VER·TAHYM→OH·ver·TAHYM
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 "overtime" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "OH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "OH-ver-tahym" 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 "overtime"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "overtime" sounds closer to "OH-ver-tahym" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
How do I pronounce the R in "overtime"?
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 "overtime" 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 "OH-ver-tahym" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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