uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce unusually in American English
uhn·YOO·zhoo·uh·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce unusually as uhn-YOO-zhoo-uh-lee (/ʌnˈjuʒuəli/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The weather has been unusually mild for this time of year".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "unusually".
5 syllables, 8 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.
yoo/ju/
Start with the tongue mid-front raised high, almost touching the roof of the mouth (but not touching). Glide into a tight lip circle as the tongue back lifts.
zh/ʒ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Add vocal cord vibration.
oo/u/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
l/l/
SyllabicThe schwa before L disappears — L becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to a Dark L.
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 YOO — keep everything else short and quick.
UHN·yoo·ZHOO·UH·LEE→uhn·YOO·zhoo·uh·lee
02
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·YOO·zhoo·uh·lee→uhn·YOO·zhoo·uh·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "unusually" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "YOO" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "uhn-YOO-zhoo-uh-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "unusually" 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-YOO-zhoo-uh-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "unusually" 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-YOO-zhoo-uh-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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