How many syllables in Actually?
Actually has 4 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "ak". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.
Say actually and check it
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Press record, say "actually" once or twice at normal speed, then stop. You will see which syllables matched and what to change.
Actually syllables
Actually has 4 syllables: AK-choo-uh-lee.
- AKæk
- chootʃu
- uhə
- leeli
Often compressed to three syllables in fast speech: AK-shuh-lee.
Sounds to watch
The l sound
Touch the tongue tip to the ridge behind your top teeth. At the end of a syllable the l is darker and the back of the tongue rises.
Weak syllables
The unstressed syllables use a short, relaxed uh (schwa). Rushing through them lightly is correct; giving them a full vowel sounds unnatural.
The a in cat
Open the jaw wider than for eh and spread the lips slightly. The a in cat is a distinct vowel, not eh or ah.
The ch and j sounds
Ch and j start with a full stop of the air (t or d) and release into sh or zh. Without the stop they collapse into sh and zh, and "cheap" becomes "sheep".
Actually in a sentence
- The meeting actually finished early for once.
- I actually prefer the earlier version of the logo.
Read either sentence into the recorder above. The check judges only the target word, so the rest of the sentence can be rough.
What Speakeroo listens for
These are the pronunciation patterns from Speakeroo’s speech feature catalog that this target tends to expose. The check above reports the ones it hears.
- Stress placed on the wrong syllableMake the correct syllable longer, clearer and more prominent.
- Schwa not reducedRelax unstressed vowels toward a short neutral sound.
- Every syllable stressed equallyEmphasise one main syllable and reduce the others.
Questions
How many syllables are in actually?
4: AK-choo-uh-lee. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.
How do you pronounce actually?
Actually is pronounced /ˈæk.ˌtʃu.ə.li/, or AK-choo-uh-lee in plain letters. It has 4 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "ak".
How do you use actually in a sentence?
The meeting actually finished early for once. I actually prefer the earlier version of the logo.
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