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 sunday in American English
SUHN·day
Start here
Americans pronounce sunday as SUHN-day (/ˈsʌndeɪ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He plays golf every Sunday with his friends" or "The public bus was stuck in the mud on Sunday" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "sunday".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
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.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "sunday" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He plays golf every Sunday with his friends."
hee PLAYZ GAHLF EHV·ree SUHN·day wihth hihz FREHNDZ
"Let's tentatively plan for Sunday pending everyone's confirmation."
LEHTS TEHN·tuh·tuhv·lee PLAN fer SUHN·day PEHN·duhng EHV·ree·wuhnz kahn·fer·MAY·shuhn
"The public bus was stuck in the mud on Sunday."
dhuh PUH·bluhk BUHS wuhz STUHK ihn dhuh MUHD ahn SUHN·day
"The whole family eats breakfast together every Sunday morning."
dhuh HOHL FAM·lee EETS BREHK·fuhst tuh·GEH·dher EHV·ree SUHN·day MOR·nuhng
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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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SUHN — keep everything else short and quick.
suhn·DAY→SUHN·day
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "sunday" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SUHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SUHN-day" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "sunday" 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 "SUHN-day" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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