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How to pronounce tongue

Tongue is pronounced TUNG, with one syllable. The ue at the end is silent, so it rhymes with young, sung and lung. American and British English say it the same way.

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

tongue

One syllable

noun · the soft part inside your mouth that you use to taste and speak

  1. TUNGtʌŋ (stressed)
  • US /tʌŋ/TUNG Recorded voice
  • UK /tʌŋ/TUNG Your device’s voice

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

Tongue, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/tʌŋ/

  1. TUNGstressed

    • /t/as in tea
    • /ʌ/as in cup
    • /ŋ/as in sing

Say tongue yourself

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

Tip. Say TUNG, like sung. The ue at the end is silent.

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

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tongue

    Common tongue pronunciation mistakes

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

    • NotTUN-gway

      Saying the ue like gwe. The ue is silent.

    • NotTONG

      Using the o of song. The vowel is the short u of cup.

    • NotTOHNG

      Reading o as in go. The vowel is the short u of cup.

    Tongue 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 burned my tongue on the hot soup.

    • English is not my mother tongue.

    • Stick out your tongue and say ah.

    How do you say tongue?

    The word has six letters but only three sounds: t, u, ng. The ue at the end is only there for the spelling, and no sound belongs to it.

    In Old English the word was tunge, and the u was the vowel of cup, which it still is. In later Middle English it was often written tonge. The spelling tongue, with ue, was a late form that copied French words such as langue.

    So do not say the g as its own sound, and do not say a w after it. Press the back of your tongue up for ng, as in sing, and finish there.

    Words that sound like tongue

    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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