How to pronounce push in American English

IPA /pʊʃ/ Syllables 1 · puush Stress 1st syllable

PUUSH

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Americans pronounce push as PUUSH (/pʊʃ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Push and pull" or "Push the bush" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "push".

1 syllable, 3 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.

uu/ʊ/

Bring the corners of your lips in slightly so they push forward, but keep them relaxed. Lift the back of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.

sh/ʃ/

Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "push" in the wild.

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

"Can we push back the meeting time by about thirty minutes?"

kuhn wee PUUSH BAK dhuh MEE·duhng TAHYM bahy uh·BOWT THUR·dee MIH·nuhts

"He does push-ups and sit-ups every morning."

hee duhz PUUSH uhps and SIHT uhps EHV·ree MOR·nuhng

"Punish the foolish motion with a harsh push."

PUH·nuhsh dhuh FOO·luhsh MOH·shuhn wihth uh HARSH PUUSH

"Push and pull."

PUUSH and PUUL

"Push the bush."

PUUSH dhuh BUUSH

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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