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 some in American English
suhm
Start here
Americans pronounce some as suhm (/səm/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Buy some bread" or "Give me some water" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "some".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. 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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
In real conversation
Hear "some" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Buy some bread."
BAHY suhm BREHD
"Can you add some other color to the background?"
kuhn yoo AD suhm UH·dher KUH·ler tuh dhuh BAK·grownd
"Could you grab some organic vegetables from the produce aisle?"
kuud yoo GRAB suhm or·GA·nuhk VEH·juh·tuh·buhlz fruhm dhuh PROH·doos AHYL
"Give me some water"
GIHV mee suhm WAH·der
"Go out and get some fresh air."
GOH OWT and GEHT suhm FREHSH AIR
"He experienced some side effects from the new medication."
hee uhk·SPEER·ee·uhnst suhm SAHYD uh·FEHKTS fruhm dhuh noo meh·duh·KAY·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 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.
SUHM→suhm
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "some" 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 "suhm" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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