p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
How to pronounce prosecutor in American English
PRAH·suh·kyoo·ter
Start here
Americans pronounce prosecutor as PRAH-suh-kyoo-ter (/ˈprɑsəkjuˌɾər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The prosecutor argued that the crime was premeditated".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "prosecutor".
4 syllables, 9 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.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
yoo/ju/
Start with the tongue mid-front raised high, almost touching the roof of the mouth (but not touching). Glide into a tight lip circle as the tongue back lifts.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
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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 PRAH — keep everything else short and quick.
prah·SUH·KYOO·TER→PRAH·suh·kyoo·TER
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
PRAH·SUH·kyoo·ter→PRAH·suh·kyoo·TER
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 "prosecutor" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "PRAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "PRAH-suh-kyoo-ter" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "prosecutor"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "prosecutor" sounds closer to "PRAH-suh-kyoo-ter" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the second syllable in "prosecutor" 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 "PRAH-suh-kyoo-ter" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "prosecutor"?
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.
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