p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce professor in American English
pruh·FEH·ser
Start here
Americans pronounce professor as pruh-FEH-ser (/prəˈfɛsər/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The professor published a paper on poetry" or "The professor announced that the test would be open book" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "professor".
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
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.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
In real conversation
Hear "professor" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The professor announced that the test would be open book."
dhuh pruh·FEH·ser uh·NOWNST dhuht dhuh TEHST wuud bee OH·puhn BUUK
"The professor encouraged students to participate actively in discussions."
dhuh pruh·FEH·ser ihn·KUR·ihjd STOO·duhnts tuh par·TIH·suh·payt AK·tuhv·lee ihn duh·SKUH·shuhnz
"The professor published a paper on poetry."
dhuh pruh·FEH·ser PUH·bluhsht uh PAY·per ahn POH·uh·tree
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch FEH — keep everything else short and quick.
PRUH·feh·SER→pruh·FEH·ser
02
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.
PRUH·FEH·ser→pruh·FEH·ser
03
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "professor" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "FEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "pruh-FEH-ser" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "professor" 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 "pruh-FEH-ser" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "professor"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "professor" 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 "pruh-FEH-ser" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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