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Pronunciation · Everyday words people get wrong

How to pronounce “February”

FEB-roo-uh-ree

4 syllables · stress on “FEB”

FEBroouhree
Britishˈfebruəri
Americanˈfebjueri

In short

“February” is pronounced FEB-roo-uh-ree: 4 syllables, with the stress on “FEB”. Two r sounds close together make the word awkward, which is why many native speakers simplify the first one to a /j/ sound: FEB-yoo-uh-ree. Both forms are standard. The version to avoid is feb-RU-a-ry — stressing the second syllable.

Say “February” in 3 steps

  1. 1Stress the first syllable: FEB-roo-uh-ree.
  2. 2The simplified FEB-yoo-uh-ree is extremely common and perfectly acceptable.
  3. 3Four syllables in careful speech, often three at conversational speed.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: feb-RU-a-ry — stressing the second syllable

Two r sounds close together make the word awkward, which is why many native speakers simplify the first one to a /j/ sound: FEB-yoo-uh-ree. Both forms are standard.

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 “February”, 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 TaxRebate and No machine-readable author provided. Dvortygirl assumed (based on copyright claims)., licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / 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.

ff as in fanee as in bedbb as in bedrr as in reduːoo as in blueəa as in about (schwa)iːee as in see

More everyday words people get wrong

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

clothesKLOHDHZmonthsMUNTHSsixthSIKSTHaskedAHSKTlibraryLY-bruh-reeprobablyPROB-uh-blee

Keep exploring

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce February?
February is pronounced FEB-roo-uh-ree, written /ˈfebruəri/ in IPA. Stress the first syllable: FEB-roo-uh-ree.
How many syllables are in February?
four: FEB-roo-uh-ree. The stress falls on “FEB”.
What is the most common mistake with February?
feb-RU-a-ry — stressing the second syllable. Two r sounds close together make the word awkward, which is why many native speakers simplify the first one to a /j/ sound: FEB-yoo-uh-ree. Both forms are standard.

The full sound library

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