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.
How to pronounce rave in American English
RAYV
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Americans pronounce rave as RAYV (/reɪv/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The movie received rave reviews for its stunning visual effects".
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Record yourself saying "rave" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "rave".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher 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.
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Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "rave" 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 "RAYV" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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