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 stopwatch in American English
STAHP·wahch
Start here
Americans pronounce stopwatch as STAHP-wahch (/ˈstɑpˌwɑtʃ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The stopwatch is used to time the sprints accurately".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "stopwatch".
2 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
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.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
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.
ch/tʃ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'sh' position. Flare your lips.
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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 "stopwatch", the "p" 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.
stopwatch→STAHP·WAHCH
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch STAHP — keep everything else short and quick.
stahp·WAHCH→STAHP·WAHCH
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "stopwatch" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "STAHP" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "STAHP-wahch" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "stopwatch" 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 "STAHP-wahch" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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