Pronunciation · Words with silent letters

How to pronounce “answer”

AHN-suh

2 syllables · stress on “AHN”

AHNsuh

Britishˈɑːnsə

Americanˈænsər

In short

“answer” is pronounced AHN-suh: 2 syllables, with the stress on “AHN”. The w survives from Old English andswaru but stopped being pronounced. Learners who read the word aloud carefully are the ones most likely to insert it. The version to avoid is AN-swer — sounding the w.

Say “answer” in 3 steps

1The w is silent: go straight from the /n/ to the /s/.
2Two syllables, stress on the first.
3The second syllable is a weak schwa, not “swer”.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: AN-swer — sounding the w

The w survives from Old English andswaru but stopped being pronounced. Learners who read the word aloud carefully are the ones most likely to insert it.

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

2 human recordings

Actual people saying “answer”, 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 No machine-readable author provided. Chris Melville assumed (based on copyright claims). and Dvortygirl, licensed under Public domain / 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.

British vs American

British English uses the long /ɑː/ of “father”; American English uses the /æ/ of “cat” and pronounces the final r.

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.

ɑːar as in car nn as in no ss as in see əa as in about (schwa)

More words with silent letters

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

WednesdayWENZ-day subtleSUT-ul receiptrih-SEET salmonSAM-un islandEYE-lund debtDET

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce answer?

answer is pronounced AHN-suh, written /ˈɑːnsə/ in IPA. The w is silent: go straight from the /n/ to the /s/.

How many syllables are in answer?

two: AHN-suh. The stress falls on “AHN”.

What is the most common mistake with answer?

AN-swer — sounding the w. The w survives from Old English andswaru but stopped being pronounced. Learners who read the word aloud carefully are the ones most likely to insert it.

Is answer pronounced differently in British and American English?

British English uses the long /ɑː/ of “father”; American English uses the /æ/ of “cat” and pronounces the final r. IELTS accepts either accent, so choose one model and stay consistent.

The full sound library

Next step

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