sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
How to pronounce sharp in American English
SHARP
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Americans pronounce sharp as SHARP (/ʃɑrp/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The shark has sharp teeth" or "Mark the card with a sharp marker" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "sharp".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ar/ɑr/
Open wide for the 'ah' vowel. Lift the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
In real conversation
Hear "sharp" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I enjoy solving complex crossword puzzles to keep my mind sharp."
ahy uhn·JOY SAHL·vuhng KAHM·plehks KRAHS·wurd PUH·zuhlz tuh KEEP mahy MAHYND SHARP
"Mark the card with a sharp marker."
MARK dhuh KARD wihth uh SHARP MAR·ker
"Please be more careful with those sharp corners."
PLEEZ bee MOR KAIR·fuhl wihth dhohz SHARP KOR·nerz
"The shark has sharp teeth."
dhuh SHARK huhz SHARP TEETH
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "sharp", the "p" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
sharp→SHARP
02
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 do I pronounce the R in "sharp"?
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 "sharp" 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 "SHARP" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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