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 somersault in American English
SUH·mer·sahlt
Start here
Americans pronounce somersault as SUH-mer-sahlt (/ˈsʌmərˌsɑlt/). The L in "somersault" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as SUH·mer·SAHLT. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The diver executed a flawless somersault into the pool".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "somersault".
3 syllables, 8 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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
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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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "somersault" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
somersault→SUH·mer·SAHLT
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SUH — keep everything else short and quick.
suh·MER·SAHLT→SUH·mer·SAHLT
03
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 "somersault" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SUH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SUH-mer-sahlt" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "somersault"?
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 "somersault" 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-mer-sahlt" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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