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 receive in American English
ruh·SEEV
Start here
Americans pronounce receive as ruh-SEEV (/rəˈsiv/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He was glad to receive the good news" or "She agreed to receive the key to the sequence" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "receive".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high 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.
In real conversation
Hear "receive" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"All visitors must sign in and receive a safety orientation."
AHL VIH·zuh·terz muhst SAHYN ihn and ruh·SEEV uh SAYF·tee or·ee·uhn·TAY·shuhn
"He decided to plead guilty to receive a lighter sentence."
hee duh·SAHY·duhd tuh PLEED GIHL·tee tuh ruh·SEEV uh LAHY·der SEHN·tuhns
"He was glad to receive the good news."
hee wuhz GLAD tuh ruh·SEEV dhuh GUUD NOOZ
"She agreed to receive the key to the sequence."
shee uh·GREED tuh ruh·SEEV dhuh KEE tuh dhuh SEE·kwuhns
"The control group did not receive the experimental treatment."
dhuh kuhn·TROHL GROOP dihd NAHT ruh·SEEV dhee ihk·spair·uh·MEHN·tuhl TREET·muhnt
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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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch SEEV — keep everything else short and quick.
RUH·seev→ruh·SEEV
02
Pronouncing the first 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.
RUH·SEEV→ruh·SEEV
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "receive" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SEEV" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ruh-SEEV" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "receive" 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 "ruh-SEEV" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "receive" 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 "ruh-SEEV" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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