p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce peacekeeping in American English
PEES·kee·puhng
Start here
Americans pronounce peacekeeping as PEES-kee-puhng (/ˈpisˌkipəŋ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The peacekeeping forces were deployed to stabilize the region".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "peacekeeping".
3 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
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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 PEES — keep everything else short and quick.
pees·KEE·PUHNG→PEES·KEE·puhng
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
PEES·kee·PUHNG→PEES·KEE·puhng
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "peacekeeping" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PEES" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PEES-kee-puhng" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "peacekeeping" 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 "PEES-kee-puhng" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "peacekeeping" 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 "PEES-kee-puhng" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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