p/p/
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How to pronounce pity in American English
PIH·tee
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Americans pronounce pity as PIH-tee (/ˈpɪɾi/). In "pity", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as PIH·tee. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "It's a pity we couldn't stay longer" or "It is a pity that the kitten bit the mitten" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "pity".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
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 "pity" 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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "pity", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
PIH-tee→PIH·tee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch PIH — keep everything else short and quick.
pih·TEE→PIH·tee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "pity" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PIH-tee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "pity"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "pity" sounds closer to "PIH-tee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Is the American pronunciation of "pity" 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 "PIH-tee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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