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 seventy in American English
SEH·vuhn·tee
Start here
Americans pronounce seventy as SEH-vuhn-tee (/ˈsɛvənti/). In "seventy", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. This is called the Silent T after N, a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. It comes out as SEH·vuhn·tee. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The trip will cost around seventy dollars" or "The test has seventy multiple-choice questions" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "seventy".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
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.
t/t/
DroppedThe T is skipped entirely. Your tongue doesn't make contact at the T position.
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 "seventy" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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
Pronouncing the silent T after N.
In "seventy", the "t" right after N is dropped — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound. /t/ is completely silent — the tongue skips the T stop and moves directly from the N position to the next sound.
seventy→SEH·vuhn·tee
02
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "seventy", 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.
seventy→SEH·vuhn·tee
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SEH — keep everything else short and quick.
seh·VUHN·TEE→SEH·vuhn·tee
04
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.
SEH·VUHN·tee→SEH·vuhn·tee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "seventy" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SEH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SEH-vuhn-tee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "seventy" 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 "SEH-vuhn-tee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "seventy" 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 "SEH-vuhn-tee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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