p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce pollution in American English
puh·LOO·shuhn
Start here
Americans pronounce pollution as puh-LOO-shuhn (/pəˈluʃən/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He drives an electric car to reduce air pollution" or "Pollution in the river affects the local fish population" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "pollution".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "pollution" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He drives an electric car to reduce air pollution."
hee DRAHYVZ uhn uh·LEHK·truhk KAR tuh ruh·DOOS AIR puh·LOO·shuhn
"He is concerned about the effects of plastic pollution on marine life."
hee ihz kuhn·SURND uh·BOWT dhee uh·FEHKTS uhv PLA·stuhk puh·LOO·shuhn ahn muh·REEN LAHYF
"Ocean pollution remains a critical environmental concern worldwide."
OH·shuhn puh·LOO·shuhn ruh·MAYNZ uh KRIH·duh·kuhl uhn·vahy·ruhn·MEHN·tuhl kuhn·SURN WURLD·wahyd
"Pollution in the river affects the local fish population."
puh·LOO·shuhn ihn dhuh RIH·ver uh·FEHKTS dhuh LOH·kuhl FIHSH pah·pyuh·LAY·shuhn
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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 "pollution", 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.
pollution→puh·LOO·shuhn
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch LOO — keep everything else short and quick.
PUH·loo·SHUHN→puh·LOO·shuhn
03
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.
PUH·LOO·shuhn→puh·LOO·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "pollution" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "LOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "puh-LOO-shuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "pollution" 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 "puh-LOO-shuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "pollution" 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 "puh-LOO-shuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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