How to pronounce please in American English

IPA /pliz/ Syllables 1 · pleez Stress 1st syllable

PLEEZ

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Americans pronounce please as PLEEZ (/pliz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Please use it" or "Please stand back" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "please".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

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.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

z/z/

Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.

In real conversation

Hear "please" in the wild.

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

"Can I get a large water, please?"

kuhn ahy GEHT uh LARJ WAH·der PLEEZ

"Can you pass me the salt, please?"

kuhn yuh PAS mee dhuh SAHLT PLEEZ

"Can you pass the pepper, please?"

kuhn yoo PAS dhuh PEH·per PLEEZ

"Can you please clean up your bedroom?"

kuhn yoo PLEEZ KLEEN UHP yer BEH·droom

"Can you please grab the blue folder?"

kuhn yoo PLEEZ GRAB dhuh BLOO FOHL·der

"Could I get a glass of water, please?"

kuud ahy GEHT uh GLAS uhv WAH·ter PLEEZ

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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