vague
adjective · not clear or exact
- VAYGveɪɡ (stressed)
- VAYGveɪɡ (stressed)
- US /veɪɡ/VAYG Recorded voice
- UK /veɪɡ/VAYG Your device’s voice
How to pronounce vague
Vague is pronounced VAYG, with one syllable. The ue at the end is silent, and the a is the ay of day. It rhymes with plague. American and British English say it the same way.
- 1 syllable
- Stress on VAYG
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Vague, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
USUK American and British English/veɪɡ/
VAYGstressed
- /v/as in van
- /eɪ/as in day
- /ɡ/as in get
Say vague yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes vague, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Say VAYG, like Craig with a V. The ue is silent, so it is one syllable.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
Say it
Say this word
vague
Compare
Ours
Yours
Your recording stays in this tab. It is gone when you leave the page.
Common vague pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say VAYG.
Not
VAY-gwuhSaying the ue as a separate sound. It is silent.
Not
VAYJTurning the g into j. The u keeps the g hard.
Not
VAGMaking the vowel short. It is the long ay of day.
Vague 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.
His answer was vague, so I asked again.
I have only a vague memory of that day.
Her directions were too vague to follow.
How do you say vague?
Vague has five letters and three sounds: v, ay, g. The ue is silent and only keeps the g hard.
The word came from French vague, from Latin vagus, meaning wandering. A vague answer is one that wanders and does not reach a point. The u in the spelling is a French habit: gu keeps a hard g before e.
The vowel is the ay of day, not the a of cat. Some speakers in Canada and the northern US shorten it, but the usual form in both dictionaries is VAYG. Say it with a long vowel and finish on a firm g.
Words that sound like vague
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
Say words like vague out loud with Slova
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.