uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce unemployment in American English
uhn·uhm·PLOY·muhnt
Start here
Americans pronounce unemployment as uhn-uhm-PLOY-muhnt (/ˌʌnəmˈplɔɪmənt/). Stress falls on the third syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The unemployment voice was a noisy noise" or "The unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in a decade" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "unemployment".
4 syllables, 11 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
m/m/
SyllabicThe schwa before M disappears — M becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to M.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
oy/ɔɪ/
Start with rounded lips and tongue shifted back. Glide to relaxed lips with the tongue arching forward and up.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "unemployment" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The recession caused widespread unemployment across multiple industries."
dhuh ruh·SEH·shuhn KAHZD WAHYD·sprehd uhn·uhm·PLOY·muhnt uh·KRAHS MUHL·tuh·puhl IHN·duh·streez
"The unemployment voice was a noisy noise."
dhee uhn·uhm·PLOY·muhnt VOYS wuhz uh NOY·zee NOYZ
"Youth unemployment is a significant challenge facing many countries."
YOOTH uhn·uhm·PLOY·muhnt ihz uh suhg·NIH·fuh·kuhnt CHA·luhnj FAY·suhng MEH·nee KUHN·treez
"The unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in a decade."
dhee uhn·uhm·PLOY·muhnt RAYT DRAHPT tuh ihts LOH·uhst LEH·vuhl ihn uh DEH·kayd
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "unemployment", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
unemployment→UHN·uhm·PLOY·muhnt
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the third syllable, not the others. Stretch PLOY — keep everything else short and quick.
UHN·UHM·ploy·MUHNT→UHN·uhm·PLOY·muhnt
03
Pronouncing the first syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
UHN·uhm·PLOY·muhnt→UHN·uhm·PLOY·muhnt
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "unemployment" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the third syllable — say "PLOY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uhn-uhm-PLOY-muhnt" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "unemployment" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "uhn-uhm-PLOY-muhnt" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "unemployment" 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 "uhn-uhm-PLOY-muhnt" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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