How to pronounce sum in American English

IPA /sʌm/ Syllables 1 · suhm Stress 1st syllable

SUHM

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Americans pronounce sum as SUHM (/sʌm/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The painting was auctioned for a record-breaking sum".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "sum".

1 syllable, 3 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.

uh/ʌ/

Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.

m/m/

Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.

In real conversation

Hear "sum" in the wild.

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

"The painting was auctioned for a record-breaking sum."

dhuh PAYN·tuhng wuhz AHK·shuhnd fer uh REH·kerd BRAY·kuhng SUHM

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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