Pronunciation · Famously mispronounced words

    How to pronounce “facade”

    fuh-SAHD

    2 syllables · stress on “SAHD”

    fuhSAHD
    Britishfəˈsɑːd
    Americanfəˈsɑːd

    In short

    “facade” is pronounced fuh-SAHD: 2 syllables, with the stress on “SAHD”. The original spelling façade carries a cedilla that tells you the c is soft. English usually drops the cedilla, removing the only clue that the c is an /s/ sound. The version to avoid is fuh-KAYD — reading the c as /k/.

    Say “facade” in 3 steps

    1. 1The c is an s sound, not a k: fuh-SAHD.
    2. 2The a in the stressed syllable is long and open, as in “father”.
    3. 3Stress the second syllable.

    The version to avoid

    Commonly said as: fuh-KAYD — reading the c as /k/

    The original spelling façade carries a cedilla that tells you the c is soft. English usually drops the cedilla, removing the only clue that the c is an /s/ 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 “facade”, 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 Master Conjurer, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. 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

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    Three speakers per accent

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    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.

    More famously mispronounced words

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

    Frequently asked questions

    How do you pronounce facade?
    facade is pronounced fuh-SAHD, written /fəˈsɑːd/ in IPA. The c is an s sound, not a k: fuh-SAHD.
    How many syllables are in facade?
    two: fuh-SAHD. The stress falls on “SAHD”.
    What is the most common mistake with facade?
    fuh-KAYD — reading the c as /k/. The original spelling façade carries a cedilla that tells you the c is soft. English usually drops the cedilla, removing the only clue that the c is an /s/ sound.

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