p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce park in American English
PARK
Start here
Americans pronounce park as PARK (/pɑrk/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Park the car in the yard" or "We are going to the park" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "park".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ar/ɑr/
Open wide for the 'ah' vowel. Lift the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
In real conversation
Hear "park" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He is learning how to skateboard at the skate park."
hee ihz LUR·nuhng HOW tuh SKAYT·bord uht dhuh SKAYT PARK
"He sketched the architecture of the city while sitting in the park."
hee SKEHCHT dhee AR·kuh·tehk·cher uhv dhuh SIH·dee WAHYL SIH·duhng ihn dhuh PARK
"I heard they are planning to renovate the park next spring."
ahy HURD dhay er PLA·nuhng tuh REH·nuh·vayt dhuh PARK NEHKST SPRIHNG
"I'm looking for a place to park."
ahym LUU·kuhng fer uh PLAYS tuh PARK
"It is hard to park such a large car in the darker part."
iht ihz HARD tuh PARK suhch uh LARJ KAR ihn dhuh DAR·ker PART
"Park the dark car in the large yard."
PARK dhuh DARK KAR ihn dhuh LARJ YARD
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "park", the "k" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
park→PARK
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 do I pronounce the R in "park"?
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 "park" 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 "PARK" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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