How to pronounce phone in American English

IPA /foʊn/ Syllables 1 · fohn Stress 1st syllable

FOHN

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Americans pronounce phone as FOHN (/foʊn/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Find the phone" or "He made a quick phone call" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "phone".

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

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

oh/oʊ/

Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

In real conversation

Hear "phone" in the wild.

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

"Find the phone."

FAHYND dhuh FOHN

"He made a quick phone call."

hee MAYD uh KWIHK FOHN KAHL

"He tracks his progress using a fitness app on his phone."

hee TRAKS hihz PRAH·grehs YOO·zuhng uh FIHT·nuhs AP ahn hihz FOHN

"I have to make a quick phone call."

ahy hav tuh MAYK uh KWIHK FOHN KAHL

"My phone battery is almost dead."

mahy FOHN BA·duh·ree ihz AHL·mohst DEHD

"No one knows the code for the home phone."

NOH wuhn NOHZ dhuh KOHD fer dhuh HOHM FOHN

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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