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 tsunami in American English
soo·NAH·mee
Start here
Americans pronounce tsunami as soo-NAH-mee (/suˈnɑmi/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The tsunami warning was issued after the underwater earthquake".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "tsunami".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
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.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch NAH — keep everything else short and quick.
SOO·nah·MEE→soo·NAH·mee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "tsunami" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "NAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "soo-NAH-mee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "tsunami" 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 "soo-NAH-mee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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