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 turned in American English
TURND
Start here
Americans pronounce turned as TURND (/tɜrnd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I turned off the oven, didn't I?" or "Thirty thirsty turtles turned in circles" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "turned".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ur/ɜr/
Flare your lips and push them away from the face. Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "turned" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He turned up the volume when his favorite song came on the radio."
hee TURND UHP dhuh VAHL·yoom wehn ihz FAY·ver·uht SAHNG KAYM ahn dhuh RAY·dee·oh
"I turned off the oven, didn't I?"
ahy TURND AHF dhee UH·vuhn DIH·duhnt ahy
"I was pleasantly surprised by how well everything turned out."
ahy wuhz PLEH·zuhnt·lee ser·PRAHYZD bahy HOW wehl EHV·ree·thuhng TURND OWT
"The bread turned out perfectly crusty on the outside and soft inside."
dhuh BREHD TURND OWT PUR·fuhkt·lee KRUH·stee ahn dhee OWT·sahyd and sahft ihn·SAHYD
"Thirty thirsty turtles turned in circles."
THUR·dee THUR·stee TUR·duhlz TURND ihn SUR·kuhlz
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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
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How do I pronounce the R in "turned"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "turned" 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 "TURND" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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