p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce previous in American English
PREE·vee·uhs
Start here
Americans pronounce previous as PREE-vee-uhs (/ˈpriviəs/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He cited previous studies to support his argument" or "I am writing to follow up on our previous conversation" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "previous".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "previous" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He cited previous studies to support his argument."
hee SAHY·duhd PREE·vee·uhs STUH·deez tuh suh·PORT hihz AR·gyuh·muhnt
"I am writing to follow up on our previous conversation."
ahy uhm RAHY·duhng tuh FAH·loh UHP ahn ar PREE·vee·uhs kahn·ver·SAY·shuhn
"The data clearly shows a significant improvement over the previous quarter."
dhuh DAY·duh KLEER·lee SHOHZ uh suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt uhm·PROOV·muhnt OH·ver dhuh PREE·vee·uhs KWOR·ter
"Voter turnout was considerably higher than in previous elections."
VOH·der TURN·owt wuhz kuhn·SIH·der·uh·blee HAHY·er dhuhn ihn PREE·vee·uhs uh·LEHK·shuhnz
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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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch PREE — keep everything else short and quick.
pree·VEE·UHS→PREE·vee·uhs
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
PREE·vee·UHS→PREE·vee·uhs
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "previous" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PREE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PREE-vee-uhs" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "previous" 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 "PREE-vee-uhs" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "previous" 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 "PREE-vee-uhs" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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