ballet
noun · a style of dance that tells a story with music and no words
- babæ
- LAYleɪ (stressed)
- BALbæl (stressed)
- ayeɪ
- US /bæˈleɪ/ba-LAY Recorded voice
- UK /ˈbæl.eɪ/BAL-ay Your device’s voice
How to pronounce ballet
Ballet is pronounced ba-LAY in American English, with the stress on the second syllable. In British English it is BAL-ay, with the stress on the first. In both, the T is silent and the word ends on the vowel of day.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on LAY
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Ballet, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/bæˈleɪ/
ba
- /b/as in bad
- /æ/as in cat
LAYstressed
- /l/as in leg
- /eɪ/as in day
UK British English/ˈbæl.eɪ/
BALstressed
- /b/as in bad
- /æ/as in cat
- /l/as in leg
ay
- /eɪ/as in day
Say ballet yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes ballet, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. The ending -et is AY, as in day. Do not say the T.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
Say it
Say this word
ballet
Compare
Ours
Yours
Your recording stays in this tab. It is gone when you leave the page.
Common ballet pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say ba-LAY.
Not
BAL-etSaying the T, so it sounds like pallet or ballot. Finish on the ay sound with no T.
Not
bah-LAYUsing the a of father, as in French. In English the first vowel is the short a in cat.
Not
ba-LETSaying -et as in let. The ending is AY, like the word day.
Ballet in a sentence
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
My daughter has ballet lessons every Saturday.
We saw a ballet at the opera house last night.
He trained in ballet before he moved to modern dance.
Why is the t in ballet silent?
Ballet is a French word, and in French a T at the end of a word is usually not said. English kept that rule for this word, so -et sounds like the ay in day. French built it from Italian balletto, a little dance.
The two accents put the stress in different places. Americans say ba-LAY, closer to the French. British speakers put the stress on the first syllable: BAL-ay. Some Americans say BAL-ay too.
The first vowel is the short a of cat in both accents. Choose the stress that matches the accent you are learning and keep the T silent either way.
Words that sound like ballet
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
Say words like ballet out loud with Slova
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.