Slova
Vehicle is pronounced VEE-uh-kl in American English and VEE-ih-kl in British English. It has three syllables with the stress on the first, and the h is silent.
vehicle
noun · a machine that carries people or goods, such as a car or a bus
Also said: UK /ˈvɪə.kəl/ or /ˈviː.ə.kəl/.
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Cambridge lists a two-syllable British form, /ˈvɪə.kəl/. Oxford lists the three-syllable form for both accents. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈviː.ə.kəl/
VEEstressed
uh
kl
UK British English/ˈviː.ɪ.kəl/
VEEstressed
ih
kl
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes vehicle, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. The h is silent. Say VEE-uh-kl, with a light middle: vee, uh, kl. There is no H.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
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vehicle
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say VEE-uh-kl.
NotVEE-hih-kl
Saying the h. After the first vowel go straight to the light uh.
Notveh-HIK-ul
Stressing the second syllable and saying the h. The stress is on VEE.
NotVEE-kul
Dropping the middle syllable. Keep three beats: VEE-uh-kl.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
You cannot park a vehicle here.
Every vehicle must stop at the red sign.
The police stopped the vehicle on the bridge.
No. The h is silent, and the word has three beats: VEE, then a light uh or ih, then kl. Many learners add an h because they see it, and say vee-HIK-ul.
The word came from French véhicule, which came from Latin vehiculum, a carriage. The Latin root is vehere, to carry. The h belongs to that root and is not sounded in vehicle, but it is sounded in vehicular (vee-HIK-yuh-ler).
Say the middle quickly and lightly, and put the weight on VEE. Cambridge also lists a two-syllable British form, VEER-kl, but the three-syllable one is the usual choice.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.