How to pronounce tough in American English

IPA /tʌf/ Syllables 1 · tuhf Stress 1st syllable

TUHF

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Americans pronounce tough as TUHF (/tʌf/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The team spirit remained high despite the tough loss".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "tough".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. 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.

uh/ʌ/

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

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "tough" in the wild.

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

"The team spirit remained high despite the tough loss."

dhuh TEEM SPIH·ruht ruh·MAYND HAHY duh·SPAHYT dhuh TUHF LAHS

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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