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How to pronounce tortoise

Tortoise is pronounced TOR-tus in American English and TAW-tus in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first. The ending -oise is just a weak tus, so nothing in it sounds like noise or toys.

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

tortoise

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a slow land animal with a hard shell

  1. TORtɔːr (stressed)
  2. tust̬əs
  • US /ˈtɔːr.t̬əs/TOR-tus Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈtɔː.təs/TAW-tus Your device’s voice

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

Tortoise, sound by sound

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

US American English/ˈtɔːr.t̬əs/

  1. TORstressed

    • /t/as in tea
    • /ɔː/as in saw
    • /r/as in red

  2. tus

    • /t̬/as in water (US)
    • /ə/as in about
    • /s/as in see

UK British English/ˈtɔː.təs/

  1. TAWstressed

    • /t/as in tea
    • /ɔː/as in saw

  2. tus

    • /t/as in tea
    • /ə/as in about
    • /s/as in see

Say tortoise yourself

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

Tip. The second syllable is a short tus. The oise is not said like noise or toys.

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

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tortoise

    Common tortoise pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say TOR-tus.

    • NotTOR-toyz

      Reading -oise like noise. The ending is a short, weak tus.

    • Nottor-TWAHZ

      Reading the spelling as French. Tortoise is said as an English word, stressed on the first syllable.

    • Nottor-TUS

      Stressing the ending. Put the beat on TOR (US) or TAW (UK).

    Tortoise 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 tortoise sleeps all winter.

    • Do you know the story of the tortoise and the hare?

    • A tortoise can live for more than 100 years.

    Why is tortoise not pronounced tor-toys?

    In Middle English the word was spelled tortuse or tortuce, from a Medieval Latin word, tortuca, whose origin is not certain. The ending was weak then, and it is weak now: tus.

    The modern -oise spelling looks French. It may have been shaped by porpoise, which ends with the same weak sound: POR-pus in American English.

    Wiktionary notes that some British speakers say TAW-toyz, but Cambridge and Oxford list only TOR-tus (US) and TAW-tus (UK). For the safe form, say tus at the end, never toys.

    Words that sound like tortoise

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

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