How to pronounce

Hearing pronunciation

/ˈhi.rɪŋ/
HEE-rihng

Hearing has 2 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "hee". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.

Say hearing and check it

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Accent

Press record, say "hearing" once or twice at normal speed, then stop. You will see which syllables matched and what to change.

Hearing syllables

Hearing has 2 syllables: HEE-rihng.

  1. HEEhi
  2. rihngrɪŋ

HEER-ing, two syllables, stress on the first. The "ear" is the vowel of "here", not "hair" — "hairing" is a real slip when the vowels are close in your own language.

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.

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 ng sound

The ng is one nasal sound made with the back of the tongue. There is no separate hard g after it.

Hearing in a sentence

  • His hearing has been poor since he worked in the mill.
  • The hearing was adjourned until the following week.

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.

  • /r/ distorted or unclearUse the selected accent’s tongue shape without pressing the tongue against the palate.
  • /h/ omittedBegin with a gentle breath before the following vowel.
  • Final -ing pronounced unclearlyRaise the back of the tongue for /ŋ/ and avoid adding /g/ unless the word requires it.
  • Final consonant omittedHold the final mouth position briefly without adding another vowel.
  • /ɪ/ and /iː/ confusedMake /iː/ higher, tenser and usually longer than /ɪ/.

Questions

How do you pronounce hearing?

Hearing is pronounced /ˈhi.rɪŋ/, or HEE-rihng in plain letters. It has 2 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "hee".

How many syllables are in hearing?

2: HEE-rihng. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.

How do you use hearing in a sentence?

His hearing has been poor since he worked in the mill. The hearing was adjourned until the following week.

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