How to pronounce “espresso”

e-SPRES-oh

3 syllables · stress on “SPRES”

eSPRESoh

Britisheˈspresəʊ

Americaneˈspresoʊ

In short

“espresso” is pronounced e-SPRES-oh: 3 syllables, with the stress on “SPRES”. English has many ex- words (express, expresso is not one of them), so speakers insert a /k/ by analogy. The Italian word has no x and no k sound. The version to avoid is ek-SPRES-oh — inserting a k that is not in the spelling.

Say “espresso” in 3 steps

1There is no k: e-SPRES-oh.
2Check the spelling — es, not ex.
3Stress the middle syllable.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: ek-SPRES-oh — inserting a k that is not in the spelling

English has many ex- words (express, expresso is not one of them), so speakers insert a /k/ by analogy. The Italian word has no x and no k sound.

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 “espresso”, 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 Kevin Steinhardt, licensed under Public domain. 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.

ee as in bed ss as in see pp as in pen rr as in red əʊo as in go

More food and drink words

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

croissantKWAS-on quinoaKEEN-wah gnocchiNYOK-ee bruschettabroo-SKET-uh jalapeñohal-uh-PAY-nyoh phoFUH

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce espresso?

espresso is pronounced e-SPRES-oh, written /eˈspresəʊ/ in IPA. There is no k: e-SPRES-oh.

How many syllables are in espresso?

three: e-SPRES-oh. The stress falls on “SPRES”.

What is the most common mistake with espresso?

ek-SPRES-oh — inserting a k that is not in the spelling. English has many ex- words (express, expresso is not one of them), so speakers insert a /k/ by analogy. The Italian word has no x and no k sound.

The full sound library

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