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 strictly in American English
STRIHKT·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce strictly as STRIHKT-lee (/ˈstrɪktli/). In "strictly", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. This is called the Silent T in Clusters, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as STRIHKT·lee. Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The big building in the city is strictly off limits" or "Discrimination based on race or gender is strictly prohibited" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "strictly".
2 syllables, 8 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.
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.
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.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
t/t/
DroppedThe T is skipped entirely. Your tongue doesn't make contact at the T position.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
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 "strictly" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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
Pronouncing the T in a consonant cluster.
In "strictly", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. /t/ is dropped entirely — the surrounding consonants flow together without the T.
strictly→STRIHKT·lee
02
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "strictly", 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.
strictly→STRIHKT·lee
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch STRIHKT — keep everything else short and quick.
strihkt·LEE→STRIHKT·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "strictly" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "STRIHKT" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "STRIHKT-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "strictly" 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 "STRIHKT-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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