How to pronounce path in American English

IPA /pæθ/ Syllables 1 · path Stress 1st syllable

PATH

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Americans pronounce path as PATH (/pæθ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "There's a path through the trees" or "Nathan threw the thick cloth on the path" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "path".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

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.

th/θ/

Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "path" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Nathan threw the thick cloth on the path."

NAY·thuhn THROO dhuh THIHK KLAHTH ahn dhuh PATH

"She tracked the path of the comet as it passed by Earth."

shee TRAKT dhuh PATH uhv dhuh KAH·muht uhz iht PAST bahy URTH

"There's a path through the trees."

DHAIRZ uh PATH throo dhuh TREEZ

"Thorough thought is the path to the truth."

THUR·oh THAHT ihz dhuh PATH tuh dhuh TROOTH

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "path" 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 "PATH" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.