p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce personally in American English
PUR·suh·nuh·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce personally as PUR-suh-nuh-lee (/ˈpɜrsənəli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Personally, I would prefer a more gradual approach to change" or "I prefer interactive classes over traditional lecture formats personally" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "personally" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "personally".
4 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue 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.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "personally" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I prefer interactive classes over traditional lecture formats personally."
ahy pruh·FUR ihn·ter·AK·tuhv KLA·suhz OH·ver truh·DIH·shuh·nuhl LEHK·cher FOR·mats PUR·suh·nuh·lee
"Personally, I would prefer a more gradual approach to change."
PUR·suh·nuh·lee ahy wuud pruh·FUR uh MOR GRA·joo·uhl uh·PROHCH tuh CHAYNJ
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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 PUR — keep everything else short and quick.
pur·SUH·NUH·LEE→PUR·suh·nuh·lee
02
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.
PUR·SUH·nuh·lee→PUR·suh·nuh·lee
03
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 "personally" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PUR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PUR-suh-nuh-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "personally" 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 "PUR-suh-nuh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "personally"?
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 "personally" 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 "PUR-suh-nuh-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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