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 speedy in American English
SPEE·dee
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Americans pronounce speedy as SPEE-dee (/ˈspidi/). In "speedy", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. So instead of SPEE·tee, you get SPEE·dee. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Everyone has the right to a fair and speedy trial".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "speedy".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
d/d/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Same as Flap T — a quick tap without stopping airflow.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "speedy", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
SPEE-tee→SPEE·dee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SPEE — keep everything else short and quick.
spee·DEE→SPEE·dee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "speedy" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SPEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SPEE-dee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "speedy"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "speedy" sounds closer to "SPEE-dee" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Is the American pronunciation of "speedy" 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 "SPEE-dee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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