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How to pronounce league

League is pronounced LEEG, with one syllable. The ue at the end is silent, so it rhymes with big words like intrigue. American and British English say it the same way.

Say it yourself
  • 1 syllable
  • Stress on LEEG
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

league

One syllable

noun · a group of sports teams that play against each other

  1. LEEGliːɡ (stressed)
  • US /liːɡ/LEEG Recorded voice
  • UK /liːɡ/LEEG Your device’s voice

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

League, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

USUK American and British English/liːɡ/

  1. LEEGstressed

    • /l/as in leg
    • /iː/as in see
    • /ɡ/as in get

Say league yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes league, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. Say LEEG. The ue is silent, so it is one syllable, not lee-gwe.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

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league

    Common league pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say LEEG.

    • NotLEE-gwuh

      Saying the ue as a separate sound. It is silent.

    • NotLEEJ

      Turning the g soft. The u keeps it hard: LEEG.

    • NotLAYG

      Reading ea as in great. Here it is the ee of see.

    League 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.

    • Our team is top of the league.

    • He plays in the local football league.

    • The league starts again next week.

    How do you say league?

    The ue is silent. The u is there to keep the g hard, as in go, instead of soft, as in gem. French uses gu before e and i in the same way, and English copied it in league, vague, plague and fatigue.

    League comes from French ligue and Italian lega, from a verb meaning to tie. It meant an alliance between groups. The sports meaning, a group of teams, came later.

    There is also an old word league for a distance of about three miles. It is the same spelling and sound, but a different word with a different origin.

    Words that sound like league

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words with silent letters

    All 170 difficult words

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