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 rebuild in American English
ree·BIHLD
Start here
Americans pronounce rebuild as ree-BIHLD (/riˈbɪld/). The L in "rebuild" 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·BIHLD. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She served her time and is now trying to rebuild her life".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "rebuild".
2 syllables, 6 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.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
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.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
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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 "rebuild" 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.
rebuild→ree·BIHLD
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch BIHLD — keep everything else short and quick.
REE·bihld→ree·BIHLD
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "rebuild" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "BIHLD" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ree-BIHLD" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "rebuild" 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-BIHLD" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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