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 significantly in American English
suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce significantly as suhg-NIH-fuh-kuhnt-lee (/səɡˈnɪfəkəntli/). In "significantly", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. This is called the Silent T in Clusters, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Cross-border cooperation has improved security significantly" or "Recycling programs have reduced landfill waste significantly" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "significantly".
5 syllables, 13 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
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.
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.
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 "significantly" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Cross-border cooperation has improved security significantly."
KRAHS BOR·der koh·ah·puh·RAY·shuhn huhz uhm·PROOVD suh·KYUUR·uh·dee suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
"Cybersecurity threats have increased significantly in recent years."
sahy·ber·suh·KYUUR·uh·tee THREHTS huhv uhn·KREEST suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee ihn REE·suhnt YEERZ
"Disability rights have advanced significantly but challenges remain."
dih·suh·BIH·luh·tee RAHYTS hav uhd·VANST suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee buht CHA·luhn·juhz ruh·MAYN
"Grassroots movements have influenced political discourse significantly."
GRAS·roots MOOV·muhnts huhv IHN·floo·uhnst puh·LIH·duh·kuhl DIH·skors suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
"Recycling programs have reduced landfill waste significantly."
ree·SAHY·kluhng PROH·gramz huhv ruh·DOOST LAND·fihl WAYST suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
"She improved her grade significantly on the retake examination."
shee uhm·PROOVD her GRAYD suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee ahn dhuh REE·tayk ihg·za·muh·NAY·shuhn
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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 T in a consonant cluster.
In "significantly", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. /t/ is dropped entirely — the surrounding consonants flow together without the T.
significantly→suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
02
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "significantly", the "t" 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.
significantly→suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
03
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "significantly", 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.
significantly→suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
04
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch NIH — keep everything else short and quick.
SUHG·nih·FUH·KUHNT·LEE→suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "significantly" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "NIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "suhg-NIH-fuh-kuhnt-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "significantly" 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 "suhg-NIH-fuh-kuhnt-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "significantly" 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 "suhg-NIH-fuh-kuhnt-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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