p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce parliament in American English
PAR·luh·muhnt
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Americans pronounce parliament as PAR-luh-muhnt (/ˈpɑrləmənt/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The parliament debated the controversial bill for several hours".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "parliament".
3 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then 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'.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
m/m/
SyllabicThe schwa before M disappears — M becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to M.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
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.
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "parliament", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
parliament→PAR·luh·muhnt
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch PAR — keep everything else short and quick.
par·LUH·MUHNT→PAR·luh·muhnt
03
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.
PAR·LUH·muhnt→PAR·luh·muhnt
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 "parliament" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PAR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PAR-luh-muhnt" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "parliament" 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 "PAR-luh-muhnt" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "parliament"?
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 "parliament" 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 "PAR-luh-muhnt" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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