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 smoother in American English
SMOO·dher
Start here
Americans pronounce smoother as SMOO-dher (/ˈsmuðər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "It's smoother than the other one" or "That clothing is smoother than this leather" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "smoother".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
dh/ð/
Place your tongue tip between or behind your front teeth, turn your vocal cords on, and push air through the gap.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
In real conversation
Hear "smoother" 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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SMOO — keep everything else short and quick.
smoo·DHER→SMOO·dher
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 is "smoother" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SMOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SMOO-dher" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "smoother"?
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 "smoother" 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 "SMOO-dher" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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