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 solution in American English
suh·LOO·shuhn
Start here
Americans pronounce solution as suh-LOO-shuhn (/səˈluʃən/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The company is looking for a good solution" or "This is a temporary solution to the problem" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "solution" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "solution".
3 syllables, 7 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.
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.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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 "solution" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Allow me to demonstrate how this solution addresses your concerns."
uh·LOW mee tuh DEH·muhn·strayt HOW dhihs suh·LOO·shuhn uh·DREH·suhz yer kuhn·SURNZ
"Carbon capture technology is being developed as a potential solution."
KAR·buhn KAP·cher tehk·NAH·luh·jee ihz BEE·uhng duh·VEH·luhpt uhz uh puh·TEHN·shuhl suh·LOO·shuhn
"Frankly speaking, I do not think that solution will work."
FRANG·klee SPEE·kuhng ahy doo NAHT thihngk dhuht suh·LOO·shuhn wuhl WURK
"The company is looking for a good solution."
dhuh KUHM·puh·nee ihz LUU·kuhng fer uh GUUD suh·LOO·shuhn
"The ph scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution."
dhuh pee·AYCH SKAYL MEH·zherz dhee uh·SIH·duh·tee or al·kuh·LIH·nuh·tee uhv uh suh·LOO·shuhn
"We need to find a creative solution to this problem."
wee NEED tuh FAHYND uh kree·AY·duhv suh·LOO·shuhn tuh dhihs PRAH·bluhm
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 "solution", 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.
solution→suh·LOO·shuhn
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch LOO — keep everything else short and quick.
SUH·loo·SHUHN→suh·LOO·shuhn
03
Pronouncing the first 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.
SUH·LOO·shuhn→suh·LOO·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "solution" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "LOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "suh-LOO-shuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "solution" 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 "suh-LOO-shuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "solution" 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 "suh-LOO-shuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "solution". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.