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 remarkable in American English
ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl
Start here
Americans pronounce remarkable as ruh-MAR-kuh-buhl (/rəˈmɑrkəbəl/). The L in "remarkable" 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 ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He showed remarkable resilience despite facing numerous setbacks" or "The cross-functional team has made remarkable progress this month" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "remarkable" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "remarkable".
4 syllables, 9 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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
ar/ɑr/
Open wide for the 'ah' vowel. Lift the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "remarkable" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He showed remarkable resilience despite facing numerous setbacks."
hee SHOHD ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl ruh·ZIHL·yuhns duh·SPAHYT FAY·suhng NOO·muh·ruhs SEHT·baks
"The cross-functional team has made remarkable progress this month."
dhuh KRAHS FUHNGK·shuh·nuhl TEEM huhz MAYD ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl PRAH·gruhs dhihs muhnth
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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "remarkable" 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.
remarkable→ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch MAR — keep everything else short and quick.
RUH·mar·KUH·BUHL→ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl
03
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·MAR·kuh·buhl→ruh·MAR·kuh·buhl
04
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 "remarkable" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "MAR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ruh-MAR-kuh-buhl" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "remarkable" 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-MAR-kuh-buhl" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "remarkable"?
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 "remarkable" 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-MAR-kuh-buhl" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "remarkable". 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.