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 reception in American English
ruh·SEHP·shuhn
Start here
Americans pronounce reception as ruh-SEHP-shuhn (/rəˈsɛpʃən/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The reception was beautifully decorated with flowers and candles".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "reception".
3 syllables, 8 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.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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.
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "reception", the "p" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
reception→ruh·SEHP·shuhn
02
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "reception", 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.
reception→ruh·SEHP·shuhn
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch SEHP — keep everything else short and quick.
RUH·sehp·SHUHN→ruh·SEHP·shuhn
04
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·SEHP·shuhn→ruh·SEHP·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "reception" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SEHP" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ruh-SEHP-shuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "reception" 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-SEHP-shuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "reception" 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-SEHP-shuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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