p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce pot in American English
PAHT
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Americans pronounce pot as PAHT (/pɑt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I bought a small pot for the new office plant".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "pot".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "pot", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
pot→PAHT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "pot" 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 "PAHT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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