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 relationship in American English
ree·LAY·shuhn·shihp
Start here
Americans pronounce relationship as ree-LAY-shuhn-shihp (/riˈleɪʃənˌʃɪp/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Establish a relationship with the shy sheep" or "I am willing to do whatever it takes to repair our relationship" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "relationship" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "relationship".
4 syllables, 10 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.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
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.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
In real conversation
Hear "relationship" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Establish a relationship with the shy sheep."
uh·STA·blihsh uh ruh·LAY·shuhn·shihp wihth dhuh SHAHY SHEEP
"I am willing to do whatever it takes to repair our relationship."
ahy uhm WIH·luhng tuh doo wuh·TEH·ver iht TAYKS tuh ruh·PAIR owr ruh·LAY·shuhn·shihp
"We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial business relationship."
wee LUUK FOR·werd tuh uh lahng and MYOO·choo·uh·lee beh·nuh·FIH·shuhl BIHZ·nuhs ree·LAY·shuhn·shihp
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 "relationship", 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.
relationship→ree·LAY·shuhn·SHIHP
02
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "relationship", 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.
relationship→ree·LAY·shuhn·SHIHP
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch LAY — keep everything else short and quick.
REE·lay·SHUHN·SHIHP→ree·LAY·shuhn·SHIHP
04
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
ree·LAY·SHUHN·shihp→ree·LAY·shuhn·SHIHP
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "relationship" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "LAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ree-LAY-shuhn-shihp" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "relationship" 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-LAY-shuhn-shihp" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "relationship" 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-LAY-shuhn-shihp" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "relationship". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.