How to pronounce saw in American English
SAH
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Americans pronounce saw as SAH (/sɑ/).
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Why it sounds different
Why "saw" sounds like SAH.
Between "" and "", a brief "" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow. This is called the Vowel-to-Vowel Linking, the way sentences stop sounding like a list and start sounding like speech. It comes out as SAH.
In real conversation
Hear "saw" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He was called to testify about what he saw that night."
hee wuhz KAHLD tuh TEH·stuh·fahy uh·BOWT wuht hee SAH dhat NAHYT
"I felt a wave of nostalgia when I saw my old photos."
ahy FEHLT uh WAYV uhv nah·STAL·juh wehn ahy SAH mahy OHLD FOH·dohz
"I saw a large star."
ahy SAH uh LARJ STAR
"I saw the law."
ahy SAH dhuh LAH
"I was relieved when I saw my score on the difficult exam."
ahy wuhz ruh·LEEVD wehn ahy SAH mahy SKOR ahn dhuh DIH·fuh·kuhlt uhg·ZAM
"She saw her daughter draw a tall building."
shee SAH her DAH·der DRAH uh TAHL BIHL·duhng
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "saw" 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 "SAH" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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