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 season in American English
SEE·zuhn
Start here
Americans pronounce season as SEE-zuhn (/ˈsizən/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Spring is my favorite season" or "It's a very busy season for our business" — more examples below.
Now you try.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "season".
2 syllables, 5 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.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "season" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He bought a new baseball glove for the upcoming season."
hee BAHT uh noo BAYS·bahl GLUHV fer dhee UHP·kuh·muhng SEE·zuhn
"He has season tickets for his favorite basketball team."
hee huhz SEE·zuhn TIH·kuhts fer hihz FAY·ver·uht BA·skuht·bahl TEEM
"He seemed eager to beat the heat this season."
hee SEEMD EE·ger tuh BEET dhuh HEET dhihs SEE·zuhn
"I always get a flu shot before the winter season begins."
ahy AHL·wayz GEHT uh FLOO SHAHT buh·FOR dhuh WIHN·ter SEE·zuhn buh·GIHNZ
"Irrigation systems water the crops during the dry season."
ih·ruh·GAY·shuhn SIH·stuhmz WAH·der dhuh KRAHPS DUUR·uhng dhuh DRAHY SEE·zuhn
"It's a very busy season for our business."
ihts uh VEH·ree BIH·zee SEE·zuhn fer owr BIHZ·nuhs
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "season", 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.
season→SEE·zuhn
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SEE — keep everything else short and quick.
see·ZUHN→SEE·zuhn
03
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.
SEE·ZUHN→SEE·zuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "season" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SEE-zuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "season" 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 "SEE-zuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "season" 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 "SEE-zuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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