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 reasonable in American English
REE·zuh·nuh·buhl
Start here
Americans pronounce reasonable as REE-zuh-nuh-buhl (/ˈrizənəbəl/). The L in "reasonable" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as REE·zuh·nuh·buhl. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The price is surprisingly reasonable" or "The settlement terms are fair and reasonable for both sides" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "reasonable" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "reasonable".
4 syllables, 9 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
In real conversation
Hear "reasonable" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "reasonable" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
reasonable→REE·zuh·nuh·buhl
02
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "reasonable", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
reasonable→REE·zuh·nuh·buhl
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch REE — keep everything else short and quick.
ree·ZUH·NUH·BUHL→REE·zuh·nuh·buhl
04
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.
REE·ZUH·nuh·buhl→REE·zuh·nuh·buhl
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "reasonable" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "REE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "REE-zuh-nuh-buhl" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "reasonable" 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 "REE-zuh-nuh-buhl" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "reasonable" 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 "REE-zuh-nuh-buhl" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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