hourly
adjective and adverb · happening every hour; paid for each hour of work
- OURaʊr (stressed)
- leeli
- OURaʊə (stressed)
- leeli
- US /ˈaʊr.li/OUR-lee Recorded voice
- UK /ˈaʊə.li/OUR-lee Your device’s voice
How to pronounce hourly
Hourly is pronounced OUR-lee. It has two syllables with the stress on the first, and the h is silent, just as in hour. In British English there is no r sound: the first part is the same as our.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on OUR
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford shows a longer American form, close to OW-er-lee. The recording is American English.
Hourly, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈaʊr.li/
OURstressed
- /aʊ/as in now
- /r/as in red
lee
- /l/as in leg
- /i/as in happy
UK British English/ˈaʊə.li/
OURstressed
- /aʊ/as in now
- /ə/as in about
lee
- /l/as in leg
- /i/as in happy
Say hourly yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes hourly, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. The H is silent. It starts like the word our.
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hourly
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Common hourly pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say OUR-lee.
Not
HOWR-leeSaying the h. It is silent, as in hour.
Not
a OUR-leeUsing a. Hourly starts with a vowel sound, so say an hourly rate.
Not
OR-leeReading ou as in four. The vowel is ow, as in now.
Hourly 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.
The buses run hourly until midnight.
What is your hourly rate?
She earns an hourly wage of 15 dollars.
Do you say a hourly or an hourly?
Hourly is hour plus -ly, and the ending changes nothing at the start. The h stays silent, so the word begins with a vowel sound, the same as our.
That is why the article is an: an hourly rate, an hourly bus. You choose a or an by the first sound you say, not the first letter you see. It works the same way with an honest answer and an heir.
Hourly can describe something, as in an hourly wage, or say how often something happens, as in the bus runs hourly. The sound is the same in both uses.
Words that sound like hourly
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
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