w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
How to pronounce what are you in American English
WUH·duh·yuh
Start here
Americans don't say "what are you" the textbook way — in casual speech it collapses into WUH-duh-yuh (/ˈwʌɾəjə/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "What are you doing tonight?" or "What are you going to do now?" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "what are you".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
d/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
y/j/
Lift the middle of your tongue toward the roof of your mouth, but stop just short of touching. /j/ is an approximant, not a stop. The tongue tip stays down, lightly resting near the back of your bottom front teeth. Voice runs through the whole gesture, and the tongue glides smoothly down into the next vowel. The lips stay neutral or pre-shape for the upcoming vowel (rounding early for OO in <em>youth</em>, for example).
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
In real conversation
Hear "what are you" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"What are you doing later this afternoon?"
WUHT er yoo DOO·uhng LAY·der dhihs af·ter·NOON
"What are you doing this evening?"
waht er yoo DOO·uhng dhihs EEV·nuhng
"What are you doing this morning?"
wuht er yoo DOO·uhng dhihs MOR·nuhng
"What are you doing tonight?"
WUHT er yuh DOO·ing tuh·NAHYT
"What are you going to do now?"
WUHT er yuh GOH·uhng tuh DOO NOW
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch WUH — keep everything else short and quick.
wuh·DUH·YUH→WUH·duh·yuh
02
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
WUH·DUH·yuh→WUH·duh·yuh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "what are you" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "WUH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "WUH-duh-yuh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "what are you"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "what are you" sounds closer to "WUH-duh-yuh" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the second syllable in "what are you" 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 "WUH-duh-yuh" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "what are you" 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 "WUH-duh-yuh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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