How to pronounce prove in American English

IPA /pruv/ Syllables 1 · proov Stress 1st syllable

PROOV

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Americans pronounce prove as PROOV (/pruv/). You'll hear it in sentences like "You should prove you understood the lesson".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "prove".

1 syllable, 4 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.

oo/u/

Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "prove" in the wild.

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

"You should prove you understood the lesson."

yoo shuud PROOV yoo uhn·der·STUUD dhuh LEH·suhn

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Questions

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