How to pronounce Breathlessly
Breathlessly has 3 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "breh". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.
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Press record, say "breathlessly" once or twice at normal speed, then stop. You will see which syllables matched and what to change.
Breathlessly syllables
Breathlessly has 3 syllables: BREH-thluh-slee.
- BREHbrɛ
- thluhθlə
- sleesli
Sounds to watch
The th sound
Put the tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth and let air pass over it. Do not swap it for a t, d, s, or z sound.
The r sound
Pull the tongue back and up without touching the roof of the mouth. American r is never rolled or tapped.
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.
Breathlessly in a sentence
- She ran into the meeting breathlessly and apologised for being late.
- The fans waited breathlessly for the final score.
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.
- Voiceless th /θ/ replacedPlace the tongue lightly between the teeth and release air without voicing.
- /t/ or /d/ used for thKeep a narrow airflow gap instead of fully blocking the air.
- Stress placed on the wrong syllableMake the correct syllable longer, clearer and more prominent.
- /r/ and /l/ confusedTouch the ridge behind the teeth for /l/ but avoid tongue contact for /r/.
- Schwa not reducedRelax unstressed vowels toward a short neutral sound.
Questions
How do you pronounce breathlessly?
Breathlessly is pronounced /ˈbrɛ.θlə.sli/, or BREH-thluh-slee in plain letters. It has 3 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "breh".
How many syllables are in breathlessly?
3: BREH-thluh-slee. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.
How do you use breathlessly in a sentence?
She ran into the meeting breathlessly and apologised for being late. The fans waited breathlessly for the final score.
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