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How to pronounce plumber

Plumber is pronounced PLUM-er in American English and PLUM-uh in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first, and the b is silent: it sounds like plummer.

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  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on PLUM
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

plumber

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a person who fits and repairs water pipes, taps and toilets

  1. PLUMplʌm (stressed)
  2. erɚ
  • US /ˈplʌm.ɚ/PLUM-er Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈplʌm.ə/PLUM-uh Your device’s voice

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

Plumber, sound by sound

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

US American English/ˈplʌm.ɚ/

  1. PLUMstressed

    • /p/as in pen
    • /l/as in leg
    • /ʌ/as in cup
    • /m/as in man

  2. er

    • /ɚ/as in mother (US)

UK British English/ˈplʌm.ə/

  1. PLUMstressed

    • /p/as in pen
    • /l/as in leg
    • /ʌ/as in cup
    • /m/as in man

  2. uh

    • /ə/as in about

Say plumber yourself

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

Tip. Say PLUM, like the fruit. The b is silent, so there is no ber at the end.

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

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plumber

    Common plumber pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say PLUM-er.

    • NotPLUM-ber

      Saying the b because it is written. After an m, this b is only spelling: stop on the m.

    • NotPLOOM-er

      Reading u as in tune. Here it is the short u of cup: PLUM.

    • Notplum-ER

      Putting the stress on the ending. The first syllable is the strong one: PLUM-er.

    Plumber 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 called a plumber when the pipe burst.

    • My uncle works as a plumber in Leeds.

    • The plumber fixed the tap in ten minutes.

    Is the b in plumber silent?

    Yes. The b is silent, and the word sounds like plum plus er. It is the same silent b you find after m in thumb, climb and lamb.

    The b comes from Latin. A plumber was first someone who worked with lead, and the Latin word for lead is plumbum. That is also why the chemical symbol for lead is Pb. Lead was once the main metal for water pipes, so the name stayed with the trade.

    English took the word from Old French, and the b stayed in the spelling even though people did not say it. Hear the first syllable as the fruit plum and put nothing after the m.

    Words that sound like plumber

    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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