uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
How to pronounce ups in American English
uhps
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Americans pronounce ups as uhps (/ʌps/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He does push-ups and sit-ups every morning".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "ups".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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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 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.
UHPS→uhps
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "ups" 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 "uhps" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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