uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce unsportsmanlike in American English
uhn·SPORTS·muhn·lahyk
Start here
Americans pronounce unsportsmanlike as uhn-SPORTS-muhn-lahyk (/ˌʌnˈspɔrtsmənˌlaɪk/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She received a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct" or "He was benched for unsportsmanlike conduct during the match" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "unsportsmanlike".
4 syllables, 13 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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
or/ɔr/
Start with the 'aw' jaw drop and rounded lips. Pull the tongue back and up while keeping the lips rounded for the R.
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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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.
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.
ahy/aɪ/
Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
In real conversation
Hear "unsportsmanlike" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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 "unsportsmanlike", 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.
unsportsmanlike→UHN·SPORTS·muhn·LAHYK
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch SPORTS — keep everything else short and quick.
UHN·sports·MUHN·LAHYK→UHN·SPORTS·muhn·LAHYK
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·SPORTS·muhn·lahyk→UHN·SPORTS·muhn·LAHYK
04
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 is "unsportsmanlike" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SPORTS" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uhn-SPORTS-muhn-lahyk" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "unsportsmanlike" 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-SPORTS-muhn-lahyk" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
How do I pronounce the R in "unsportsmanlike"?
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 "unsportsmanlike" 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-SPORTS-muhn-lahyk" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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