p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce paperwork in American English
PAY·per·wurk
Start here
Americans pronounce paperwork as PAY-per-wurk (/ˈpeɪpərˌwɜrk/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "paperwork".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
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.
w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
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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 PAY — keep everything else short and quick.
pay·PER·WURK→PAY·per·WURK
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 "paperwork" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PAY-per-wurk" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "paperwork"?
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 "paperwork" 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 "PAY-per-wurk" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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