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How to pronounce salmon

Salmon is pronounced SAM-un, with two syllables and the stress on the first. The l is silent, so it sounds like Sam plus un. American and British English say it the same way.

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

salmon

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a large pink fish that people eat

  1. SAMsæm (stressed)
  2. unən
  • US /ˈsæm.ən/SAM-un Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈsæm.ən/SAM-un Your device’s voice

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

Salmon, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/ˈsæm.ən/

  1. SAMstressed

    • /s/as in see
    • /æ/as in cat
    • /m/as in man

  2. un

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

Say salmon yourself

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

Tip. The l is silent. Say SAM-un, like Sam + un. It is not SAL-mon.

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

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salmon

    Common salmon pronunciation mistakes

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

    • NotSAL-mun

      Saying the l because it is written. Go straight from a to m.

    • NotSAHL-mun

      Using the long ah and the l. The vowel is the a of cat and the l is silent.

    • Notsam-ON

      Stressing the second syllable. The stress is on SAM.

    Salmon 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 had grilled salmon with rice for dinner.

    • Smoked salmon is nice on fresh bread.

    • The salmon swim up the river every autumn.

    Why is the l in salmon silent?

    The l is silent now, but it is not a mistake in the spelling. It was added on purpose. The word came into English as samoun from French saumon, and French had no l. Later, writers added the l to match the Latin original, salmo.

    Speakers did not follow the spelling, and the sound stayed samon. The same thing happened to debt, indict and receipt, where a letter was put back to look more like Latin.

    So say the first syllable like the name Sam, and the second like un. Do not touch the roof of your mouth with your tongue after the a.

    Words that sound like salmon

    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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