p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce pat in American English
PAT
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Americans pronounce pat as PAT (/pæt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She has a pet cat she likes to pat".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "pat".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "pat", the "t" 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.
pat→PAT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "pat" 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 "PAT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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