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 spirit in American English
SPIH·ruht
Start here
Americans pronounce spirit as SPIH-ruht (/ˈspɪrət/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She waived a foam finger to show her team spirit" or "The team spirit remained high despite the tough loss" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "spirit".
2 syllables, 6 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.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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 "spirit" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"She waived a foam finger to show her team spirit."
shee WAYVD uh FOHM FIHNG·ger tuh SHOH her TEEM SPIH·ruht
"The team spirit remained high despite the tough loss."
dhuh TEEM SPIH·ruht ruh·MAYND HAHY duh·SPAHYT dhuh TUHF LAHS
"The team's collaborative spirit has been inspiring to witness."
dhuh TEEMZ kuh·LA·buh·ruh·tuhv SPIH·ruht huhz bihn uhn·SPAHY·ruhng tuh WIHT·nuhs
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "spirit", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
spirit→SPIH·ruht
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SPIH — keep everything else short and quick.
spih·RUHT→SPIH·ruht
03
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
SPIH·RUHT→SPIH·ruht
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "spirit" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SPIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SPIH-ruht" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "spirit" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "SPIH-ruht" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "spirit" 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 "SPIH-ruht" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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