Pronunciation · Famously mispronounced words

How to pronounce “anemone”

uh-NEM-uh-nee

4 syllables · stress on “NEM”

uhNEMuhnee

Britishəˈneməni

Americanəˈneməni

In short

“anemone” is pronounced uh-NEM-uh-nee: 4 syllables, with the stress on “NEM”. Two identical-sounding weak syllables surround the stress, and the n and m are easy to swap. The tongue keeps wanting to say “enemy”. The version to avoid is uh-NEM-uh-nuh or an-uh-MOH-nee — losing or reordering the middle syllables.

Say “anemone” in 3 steps

1Break it into four even beats: uh-NEM-uh-nee.
2Stress beat two, NEM.
3Say it slowly three times before speeding up — this is a coordination problem, not a knowledge problem.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: uh-NEM-uh-nuh or an-uh-MOH-nee — losing or reordering the middle syllables

Two identical-sounding weak syllables surround the stress, and the n and m are easy to swap. The tongue keeps wanting to say “enemy”.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

1 human recording

Actual people saying “anemone”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Dvortygirl, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

əa as in about (schwa)nn as in no ee as in bed mm as in man iːee as in see

More famously mispronounced words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

epitomeih-PIT-uh-mee hyperbolehy-PUR-buh-lee colonelKUR-nul awryuh-RY segueSEG-way cacheKASH

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce anemone?

anemone is pronounced uh-NEM-uh-nee, written /əˈneməni/ in IPA. Break it into four even beats: uh-NEM-uh-nee.

How many syllables are in anemone?

four: uh-NEM-uh-nee. The stress falls on “NEM”.

What is the most common mistake with anemone?

uh-NEM-uh-nuh or an-uh-MOH-nee — losing or reordering the middle syllables. Two identical-sounding weak syllables surround the stress, and the n and m are easy to swap. The tongue keeps wanting to say “enemy”.

The full sound library

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