Christian pronunciation
Christian has 2 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "krihs". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.
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Christian syllables
Christian has 2 syllables: KRIHS-chuhn.
- KRIHSkrɪs
- chuhntʃən
KRIS-chun, two syllables, stress on the first. The "-tian" is "chun" — a "ch" sound, not the "t" you might expect from the spelling.
Sounds to watch
The r sound
Pull the tongue back and up without touching the roof of the mouth. American r is never rolled or tapped.
Weak syllables
The unstressed syllables use a short, relaxed uh (schwa). Rushing through them lightly is correct; giving them a full vowel sounds unnatural.
Short i versus ee
The short i (as in sit) is shorter and more relaxed than ee. Many learners stretch it into ee, which changes the word.
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".
Christian in a sentence
- The church was built for a small Christian community in the 1800s.
- He was raised Christian but does not practise now.
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.
- Vowel influenced too strongly by spellingLearn the sound using IPA and audio rather than pronouncing every written vowel.
- /r/ distorted or unclearUse the selected accent’s tongue shape without pressing the tongue against the palate.
- Final consonant omittedHold the final mouth position briefly without adding another vowel.
- Schwa not reducedRelax unstressed vowels toward a short neutral sound.
- /ɪ/ and /iː/ confusedMake /iː/ higher, tenser and usually longer than /ɪ/.
Questions
How do you pronounce christian?
Christian is pronounced /ˈkrɪs.tʃən/, or KRIHS-chuhn in plain letters. It has 2 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "krihs".
How many syllables are in christian?
2: KRIHS-chuhn. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.
How do you use christian in a sentence?
The church was built for a small Christian community in the 1800s. He was raised Christian but does not practise now.
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