Illinois pronunciation
Illinois has 3 syllables. The stress is on the third syllable, "noy". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.
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Illinois syllables
Illinois has 3 syllables: ih-luh-NOY.
- ihɪ
- luhlə
- NOYnɔɪ
Il-uh-NOY, three syllables, stress on the last. The final s is silent — the state is French in origin, and the s was never sounded.
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.
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.
Illinois in a sentence
- Illinois winters are colder than most people expect.
- She was born in Illinois and moved west after college.
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.
- Extra syllable addedBlend adjacent sounds and avoid pronouncing silent letters.
- Schwa not reducedRelax unstressed vowels toward a short neutral sound.
- Diphthong flattened into one vowelMove smoothly between both vowel positions.
- /ɪ/ and /iː/ confusedMake /iː/ higher, tenser and usually longer than /ɪ/.
Questions
How do you pronounce illinois?
Illinois is pronounced /ˌɪ.lə.ˈnɔɪ/, or ih-luh-NOY in plain letters. It has 3 syllables and the stress falls on the third syllable, "noy".
How many syllables are in illinois?
3: ih-luh-NOY. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.
How do you use illinois in a sentence?
Illinois winters are colder than most people expect. She was born in Illinois and moved west after college.
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