How to pronounce pressed in American English

IPA /prɛst/ Syllables 1 · prehst Stress 1st syllable

PREHST

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Americans pronounce pressed as PREHST (/prɛst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She pressed the flower between the pages of a book".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "pressed".

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.

r/r/

Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "pressed" in the wild.

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

"She pressed the flower between the pages of a book."

shee PREHST dhuh FLOW·er buh·TWEEN dhuh PAY·juhz uhv uh BUUK

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Questions

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