v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
How to pronounce vacation in American English
vay·KAY·shuhn
Start here
Americans pronounce vacation as vay-KAY-shuhn (/veɪˈkeɪʃən/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Tell us about your vacation" or "We had a fantastic time on our vacation" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "vacation".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "vacation" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"I have been in such a good mood ever since the vacation."
ahy hav bihn ihn suhch uh GUUD MOOD EH·ver SIHNS dhuh vay·KAY·shuhn
"It seems like everyone is going on vacation this time of year."
iht SEEMZ LAHYK EHV·ree·wuhn ihz GOH·uhng ahn vuh·KAY·shuhn dhihs TAHYM uhv YEER
"Tell us about your vacation."
TEHL uhs uh·BOWT yer vay·KAY·shuhn
"We had a fantastic time on our vacation."
wee had uh fan·TA·stuhk TAHYM ahn ar vay·KAY·shuhn
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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 "vacation", 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.
vacation→vay·KAY·shuhn
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch KAY — keep everything else short and quick.
VAY·kay·SHUHN→vay·KAY·shuhn
03
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
vay·KAY·SHUHN→vay·KAY·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "vacation" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "KAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "vay-KAY-shuhn" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the third syllable in "vacation" 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 "vay-KAY-shuhn" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "vacation" 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 "vay-KAY-shuhn" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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