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 sorry in American English
SAH·ree
Start here
Americans pronounce sorry as SAH-ree (/ˈsɑri/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Carry the sorry story to the rural area" or "I realize now that I made a mistake and I am sorry" — more examples below.
Now you try.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "sorry".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
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 "sorry" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Carry the sorry story to the rural area."
KAIR·ee dhuh SAH·ree STOR·ee tuh dhuh RUUR·uhl AIR·ee·uh
"I am sorry for overreacting when you were just trying to help."
ahy am SAH·ree fer oh·ver·ree·AK·tuhng wehn yoo wer juhst TRAHY·uhng tuh HEHLP
"I am truly sorry for the inconvenience that I have caused you."
ahy am TROO·lee SAH·ree fer dhee uhn·kuhn·VEEN·yuhns dhuht ahy hav KAHZD yoo
"I realize now that I made a mistake and I am sorry."
ahy REE·uh·lahyz NOW dhuht ahy MAYD uh muh·STAYK and ahy uhm SAH·ree
"I take full responsibility for what happened and I am very sorry."
ahy TAYK FUUL ruh·spahn·suh·BIH·luh·tee fer wuht HA·puhnd and ahy uhm VEH·ree SAH·ree
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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 SAH — keep everything else short and quick.
sah·REE→SAH·ree
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "sorry" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SAH-ree" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "sorry" 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 "SAH-ree" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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