castle
noun · a large strong building with thick walls, built in the past to protect people
- KASkæs (stressed)
- uləl
- KAHkɑː (stressed)
- sulsəl
- US /ˈkæs.əl/KAS-ul Recorded voice
- UK /ˈkɑː.səl/KAH-sul Your device’s voice
How to pronounce castle
Castle is pronounced KAS-ul in American English and KAH-sul in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first. The T is silent in both accents.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on KAS
- 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.
Castle, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈkæs.əl/
KASstressed
- /k/as in cat
- /æ/as in cat
- /s/as in see
ul
- /ə/as in about
- /l/as in leg
UK British English/ˈkɑː.səl/
KAHstressed
- /k/as in cat
- /ɑː/as in father
sul
- /s/as in see
- /ə/as in about
- /l/as in leg
Say castle yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes castle, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Go from S straight to the L. There is no T: KAS-ul (US), KAH-sul (UK).
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Common castle pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say KAS-ul.
Not
KAS-tulSaying the T. In words ending in -stle, the T is silent.
Not
kas-TELStressing the end, as in Spanish castillo or Italian castello. In English the stress is on the first syllable.
Not
KAS-tlehReading the final E as a vowel. The E is silent and the word ends on a soft L.
Castle 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.
We visited a castle on a hill in Scotland.
The kids made a castle out of sand.
In chess, the castle is also called a rook.
Why is the t silent in castle?
In English, a T between S and a final L is not said. Castle follows the same rule as whistle, wrestle, nestle and bustle. The word is very old in English. Old English had castel, from Latin castellum, a small fort.
The vowel shows the accent. Americans use the a in cat, as in cast. Southern British English uses the long ah in father, the same change you hear in bath, grass and last. Many speakers in the north of England keep the cat vowel.
Practise by saying kass and then a soft ul without lifting your tongue for a T.
Words that sound like castle
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
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