How to pronounce pleased in American English

IPA /plizd/ Syllables 1 · pleezd Stress 1st syllable

PLEEZD

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Americans pronounce pleased as PLEEZD (/plizd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I am pleased to inform you that you have been nominated for a promotion".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "pleased".

1 syllable, 5 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.

d/d/

Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.

In real conversation

Hear "pleased" in the wild.

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

"I am pleased to inform you that you have been nominated for a promotion."

ahy am PLEEZD tuh uhn·FORM yuh dhuht yuh huhv bihn nah·muh·NAY·duhd fer uh pruh·MOH·shuhn

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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