p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce placebo in American English
pluh·SEE·boh
Start here
Americans pronounce placebo as pluh-SEE-boh (/pləˈsiboʊ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The placebo effect is a phenomenon observed in medical trials".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "placebo".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
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.
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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 SEE — keep everything else short and quick.
PLUH·see·BOH→pluh·SEE·boh
02
Pronouncing the first 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.
PLUH·SEE·boh→pluh·SEE·boh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "placebo" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "pluh-SEE-boh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "placebo" 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 "pluh-SEE-boh" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "placebo" 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 "pluh-SEE-boh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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