How to pronounce spent in American English

IPA /spɛnt/ Syllables 1 · spehnt Stress 1st syllable

SPEHNT

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Americans pronounce spent as SPEHNT (/spɛnt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She spent a semester abroad conducting field research" or "I spent hours in the library gathering sources for my paper" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "spent".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

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.

In real conversation

Hear "spent" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"I spent hours in the library gathering sources for my paper."

ahy SPEHNT OW·erz ihn dhuh LAHY·brair·ee GA·dher·uhng SOR·suhz fer mahy PAY·per

"She spent a semester abroad conducting field research."

shee SPEHNT uh suh·MEH·ster uh·BRAHD kuhn·DUHK·tuhng FEELD REE·surch

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "spent" 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 "SPEHNT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.