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.
How to pronounce tell in American English
TEHL
Start here
Americans pronounce tell as TEHL (/tɛl/). The L in "tell" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as TEHL. You'll hear it in sentences like "Tell the time" or "Tell us about your vacation" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "tell".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
In real conversation
Hear "tell" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"All well that ends well, they tell."
AHL wehl dhuht EHNDZ wehl dhay TEHL
"Can you tell me a little about the problem?"
kuhn yoo TEHL mee uh LIH·duhl uh·BOWT dhuh PRAH·bluhm
"I can't tell if you said fifteen or fifty."
ahy KANT TEHL ihf yoo sehd fihf·TEEN er FIHF·tee
"I don't know what to tell you."
ahy dohn NOH wuht tuh TEHL yoo
"Tell the teacher the truth about the test."
TEHL dhuh TEE·cher dhuh TROOTH uh·BOWT dhuh TEHST
"Tell us about your vacation."
TEHL uhs uh·BOWT yer vay·KAY·shuhn
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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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "tell" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
tell→TEHL
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "tell" 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 "TEHL" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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