How to pronounce The survey asks about your age, your occupation, and your income. in American English

Words 11 Difficulty Intermediate Featured sound Unreleased Stops

dhuh the SUR·vay survey ASKS asks uh·BOWT about yer your AYJ age yer your ahk·yuh·PAY·shuhn occupation and and yer your IHN·kuhm income

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In casual American English, "The survey asks about your age, your occupation, and your income" sounds like "dhuh SUR-vay ASKS uh-BOWT yer AYJ yer ahk-yuh-PAY-shuhn and yer IHN-kuhm". Several things happen here, and the headline one is the Unreleased Stops: the final stop consonant closes without a puff of air. Keep stressed words long, unstressed words short, and link the consonants forward into the vowels.

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Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

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72% Noticeable accent

Common mistakes

Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.

In "and", the "a" vowel before M or N raises and fronts toward [eə] — the tongue pulls up and forward, breaking the vowel into a tense glide as it anticipates the nasal. The "/æ/" vowel raises and fronts before M or N — tongue pulls up and forward, producing a tense [eə] glide (between /e/ and /ə/). Not a pure /æ/.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "occupation", the "" 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.

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Why it sounds different

What makes this sentence sound American.

In "occupation", the "" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. This is called the Unreleased Stops, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as ahk-yuh-PAY-shuhn.

The breakdown

What's happening in this sentence.

Small tricks that turn a textbook sentence into how an American actually says it.

Reduced Words (to, for, of) in "the"Full vowel reduces to schwa /ə/ or other weak vowel. Consonants may simplify.

(j/w)

Vowel-to-Vowel Linking between "survey" & "asks"A brief glide (y or w) bridges two vowels for smooth flow.

⌣

Consonant-to-Vowel Linking between "asks" & "about"Final consonant "migrates" to next word — no pause between.

→tʃ/dʒ/ʃ/ʒ

Y-Merging (gotcha, didja) between "about" & "your"The two sounds merge: T+Y → CH, D+Y → J, S+Y → SH, Z+Y → ZH.

ə→◌

Silent Schwa Before L/M/N/R in "occupation"Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.

•

Unreleased Stops in "occupation"Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.

Word by word

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the dhuh survey SUR·vay asks ASKS about uh·BOWT your yer age AYJ your yer occupation ahk·yuh·PAY·shuhn and and your yer income IHN·kuhm

Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.

Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.

and→and

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "occupation", the "" 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.

ahk-yuh-PAY-shuhn→ahk·yuh·PAY·shuhn

Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.

In "occupation", the short unstressed vowel before "" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.

ahk-yuh-PAY-shuhn→ahk·yuh·PAY·shuhn

Saying the consonants separately.

The "" at the end of "" and the "y" starting "" blend together into "" — natural in casual conversation; in formal or careful speech, the two sounds stay separate. The two sounds merge: T+Y → CH, D+Y → J, S+Y → SH, Z+Y → ZH.

uh-BOWT→uh·BOWT

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Why is "the" said so quickly in this sentence?

Function words — articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns — reduce to short, unstressed schwa shapes in casual American speech. Pronouncing them fully like the dictionary entry is a dead giveaway of a textbook accent. Native speakers stress only the content words and let everything else collapse.

How are the words connected in casual American speech?

Americans don't pause between words. A consonant at the end of one word links forward into the vowel that starts the next; two vowels in a row get bridged by a tiny W or Y glide; an identical consonant repeated across a word boundary is held just once. The result is a continuous flow rather than a textbook word-by-word delivery.

Is this how the sentence is taught in textbooks?

Textbooks usually teach the citation form — every word pronounced fully, every consonant crisp, every vowel pure. Americans actually flap their Ts, drop function-word H's, link consonants forward into vowels, and reduce unstressed syllables to schwa. The respell on this page shows the casual form you'll hear in real conversations rather than the textbook version.

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Common mistakes

Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

What makes this sentence sound American.

What's happening in this sentence.

Tap any word for its full breakdown.

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

Pronouncing the vowel before M/N too pure.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.

Saying the consonants separately.

Questions people ask about this.

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