s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
How to pronounce salary in American English
SA·luh·ree
Start here
Americans pronounce salary as SA-luh-ree (/ˈsæləri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The salary they're offering is excellent" or "The employment contract outlines the salary and benefits" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "salary".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
r/r/
SyllabicThe schwa before R disappears — R becomes the vowel of the syllable. This is the 'er' sound without a distinct vowel before it.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "salary" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I contribute a percentage of my salary to my retirement fund each month."
ahy kuhn·TRIH·byoot uh per·SEHN·tuhj uhv mahy SA·luh·ree tuh mahy ruh·TAHY·er·muhnt FUHND EECH muhnth
"The employment contract outlines the salary and benefits."
dhee uhm·PLOY·muhnt KAHN·trakt OWT·lahynz dhuh SA·luh·ree and BEH·nuh·fuhts
"The salary they're offering is excellent."
dhuh SA·luh·ree dhair AH·fer·uhng ihz EHK·suh·luhnt
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch SA — keep everything else short and quick.
sa·LUH·REE→SA·luh·ree
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
SA·LUH·ree→SA·luh·ree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "salary" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SA" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SA-luh-ree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "salary" 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 "SA-luh-ree" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "salary" 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 "SA-luh-ree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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