Pronunciation · Words with fewer syllables than they look

How to pronounce “literature”

LIT-ruh-chuh

3 syllables · stress on “LIT”

LITruhchuh

Britishˈlɪtrətʃə

Americanˈlɪtərətʃər

In short

“literature” is pronounced LIT-ruh-chuh: 3 syllables, with the stress on “LIT”. Same two problems as temperature: a deleted vowel in the middle and a -ture ending that becomes /tʃə/ rather than “tyoor”. The version to avoid is li-te-ra-TURE — four syllables ending like “tour”.

Say “literature” in 3 steps

1Three syllables: LIT-ruh-chuh.
2Stress the first syllable.
3The -ture ending is “chuh”, exactly as in picture, feature and nature.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: li-te-ra-TURE — four syllables ending like “tour”

Same two problems as temperature: a deleted vowel in the middle and a -ture ending that becomes /tʃə/ rather than “tyoor”.

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 “literature”, 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.

ll as in light ɪi as in sit tt as in tea rr as in red əa as in about (schwa)tʃch as in chair

More words with fewer syllables than they look

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

comfortableKUMF-tuh-bul vegetableVEJ-tuh-bul chocolateCHOK-lut interestingIN-truh-sting temperatureTEM-pruh-chuh restaurantRES-tront

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce literature?

literature is pronounced LIT-ruh-chuh, written /ˈlɪtrətʃə/ in IPA. Three syllables: LIT-ruh-chuh.

How many syllables are in literature?

three: LIT-ruh-chuh. The stress falls on “LIT”.

What is the most common mistake with literature?

li-te-ra-TURE — four syllables ending like “tour”. Same two problems as temperature: a deleted vowel in the middle and a -ture ending that becomes /tʃə/ rather than “tyoor”.

The full sound library

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