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How to pronounce listen

Listen is pronounced LIS-un, with two syllables and the stress on the first. The t is silent. American and British English say it the same way.

Say it yourself
  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on LIS
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

listen

Two syllables, stress on the first

verb · to pay attention to a sound so that you can hear it

  1. LISlɪs (stressed)
  2. unən
  • US /ˈlɪs.ən/LIS-un Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈlɪs.ən/LIS-un Your device’s voice

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

Listen, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/ˈlɪs.ən/

  1. LISstressed

    • /l/as in leg
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /s/as in see

  2. un

    • /ə/as in about
    • /n/as in now

Say listen yourself

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

Tip. The t is silent. Say LIS-un, like lis + sun. The stress is on the first syllable.

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

Say it

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listen

    Common listen pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say LIS-un.

    • NotLIS-ten

      Saying the t because it is written. Go from s straight to the weak un.

    • NotLEES-un

      Making the vowel long. It is the short i of sit.

    • Notlis-TEN

      Stressing the second syllable. The stress is on LIS.

    Listen 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.

    • I listen to music on the bus every day.

    • Please listen to what she is saying.

    • Do you listen to podcasts in English?

    Is the t in listen silent?

    Yes. In listen the t is silent: LIS-un. It belongs to a small group of words in which st is followed by en or le and the t falls away: listen, fasten, glisten, christen, castle and whistle.

    The t was not always there. Old English had hlysnan, with no t. In Middle English a related verb with a t was mixed in, and the spelling listen won. The sound stayed close to the old one.

    Say the s and then the n with almost no vowel between them. Put the weight on LIS, and keep the end soft.

    Words that sound like listen

    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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