p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce ph in American English
pee·AYCH
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Americans pronounce ph as pee-AYCH (/ˌpiˈeɪtʃ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She measures the ph level of the rainwater" or "The ph scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "ph".
2 syllables, 4 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.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
ch/tʃ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'sh' position. Flare your lips.
In real conversation
Hear "ph" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch AYCH — keep everything else short and quick.
PEE·aych→PEE·AYCH
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "ph" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "AYCH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "pee-AYCH" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "ph" 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 "pee-AYCH" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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