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 rehearsing in American English
ruh·HUR·suhng
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Americans pronounce rehearsing as ruh-HUR-suhng (/rəˈhɜrsɪŋ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He has been rehearsing for the school play for weeks".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "rehearsing".
3 syllables, 7 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.
h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
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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 HUR — keep everything else short and quick.
RUH·hur·SUHNG→ruh·HUR·suhng
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·HUR·suhng→ruh·HUR·suhng
03
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "rehearsing" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "HUR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ruh-HUR-suhng" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "rehearsing" 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-HUR-suhng" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "rehearsing"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "rehearsing" 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-HUR-suhng" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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