How to pronounce Courteously
Courteously has 4 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "kur". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.
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Press record, say "courteously" once or twice at normal speed, then stop. You will see which syllables matched and what to change.
Courteously syllables
Courteously has 4 syllables: KUR-tee-uh-slee.
- KURkɝ
- teeti
- uhə
- sleesli
The first syllable sounds like "cur", not "court".
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 er vowel
American er (as in her) is a single vowel with the tongue bunched back. Keep the r quality through the whole vowel.
Courteously in a sentence
- The receptionist courteously asked us to wait a moment.
- He declined the offer courteously but firmly.
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 do you pronounce courteously?
Courteously is pronounced /ˈkɝ.ti.ə.sli/, or KUR-tee-uh-slee in plain letters. It has 4 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "kur".
How many syllables are in courteously?
4: KUR-tee-uh-slee. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.
How do you use courteously in a sentence?
The receptionist courteously asked us to wait a moment. He declined the offer courteously but firmly.
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