Pronunciation · Words with silent letters

How to pronounce “psychology”

sy-KOL-uh-jee

4 syllables · stress on “KOL”

syKOLuhjee

Britishsaɪˈkɒlədʒi

Americansaɪˈkɑːlədʒi

In short

“psychology” is pronounced sy-KOL-uh-jee: 4 syllables, with the stress on “KOL”. English does not allow a /ps/ cluster at the start of a word, so the Greek ps- is reduced to /s/. Speakers of languages that do allow the cluster often pronounce the p. The version to avoid is puh-sy-KOL-uh-jee — sounding the p.

Say “psychology” in 3 steps

1The p is silent. Start with a plain /s/: sy-KOL-uh-jee.
2Stress the second syllable, KOL.
3Every ps- word behaves this way: psychiatry, psalm, pseudonym.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: puh-sy-KOL-uh-jee — sounding the p

English does not allow a /ps/ cluster at the start of a word, so the Greek ps- is reduced to /s/. Speakers of languages that do allow the cluster often pronounce the p.

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 “psychology”, 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.

British vs American

The stressed vowel is the short rounded /ɒ/ in British English and the longer unrounded /ɑː/ in American English.

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.

ss as in see aɪi as in my kk as in key ɒo as in hot ll as in light əa as in about (schwa)dʒj as in job iːee as in see

Who finds this word hardest

Your first language predicts which part of a word will break. These guides list the highest-impact fixes for each.

Russian speakers: Russian speakers' defining habit is final devoicing ('dog' → 'dok', 'five' → 'fife') which also erases the grammar carried by final z sounds.
Spanish speakers: Spanish has 5 pure vowels where English has around 20, so the highest-impact work for Spanish speakers is vowel contrasts (ship/sheep, cat/cut) plus the b/v merger and the extra 'e' that sneaks in before s-clusters (eSpain).
Portuguese speakers: For Portuguese speakers (especially Brazilian), the top fixes are: final l turning into w ('milk' → 'miwk'), t/d softening to ch/j before i ('tea' → 'chee'), the helper -i after final stops ('big' → 'bigi'), and initial r becoming h ('red' → 'head').

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 psychology?

psychology is pronounced sy-KOL-uh-jee, written /saɪˈkɒlədʒi/ in IPA. The p is silent. Start with a plain /s/: sy-KOL-uh-jee.

How many syllables are in psychology?

four: sy-KOL-uh-jee. The stress falls on “KOL”.

What is the most common mistake with psychology?

puh-sy-KOL-uh-jee — sounding the p. English does not allow a /ps/ cluster at the start of a word, so the Greek ps- is reduced to /s/. Speakers of languages that do allow the cluster often pronounce the p.

Is psychology pronounced differently in British and American English?

The stressed vowel is the short rounded /ɒ/ in British English and the longer unrounded /ɑː/ in American English. IELTS accepts either accent, so choose one model and stay consistent.

The full sound library

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