p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce poison in American English
POY·zuhn
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Americans pronounce poison as POY-zuhn (/ˈpɔɪzən/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Avoid the poison and enjoy the choice oil".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "poison".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
oy/ɔɪ/
Start with rounded lips and tongue shifted back. Glide to relaxed lips with the tongue arching forward and up.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "poison", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
poison→POY·zuhn
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch POY — keep everything else short and quick.
poy·ZUHN→POY·zuhn
03
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
POY·ZUHN→POY·zuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "poison" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "POY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "POY-zuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "poison" 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 "POY-zuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "poison" 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 "POY-zuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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