Pronunciation · Famously mispronounced words

How to pronounce “segue”

SEG-way

2 syllables · stress on “SEG”

SEGway

Britishˈseɡweɪ

Americanˈseɡweɪ

In short

“segue” is pronounced SEG-way: 2 syllables, with the stress on “SEG”. It is Italian, so the -gue is not the silent French ending of “tongue” or “vague”. Many people know the sound from speech and the spelling from print without ever connecting the two. The version to avoid is SEEG or SEG-yoo — reading the -ue as in “argue”.

Say “segue” in 3 steps

1Say SEG as in “segment”.
2Add “way”, exactly like the personal transporter brand.
3Two syllables, stress on the first.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: SEEG or SEG-yoo — reading the -ue as in “argue”

It is Italian, so the -gue is not the silent French ending of “tongue” or “vague”. Many people know the sound from speech and the spelling from print without ever connecting the two.

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 “segue”, 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 and Commander Keane, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 / 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

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.

ss as in see ee as in bed ɡg as in go ww as in we eɪay as in day

More famously mispronounced words

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

epitomeih-PIT-uh-mee hyperbolehy-PUR-buh-lee colonelKUR-nul awryuh-RY cacheKASH facadefuh-SAHD

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce segue?

segue is pronounced SEG-way, written /ˈseɡweɪ/ in IPA. Say SEG as in “segment”.

How many syllables are in segue?

two: SEG-way. The stress falls on “SEG”.

What is the most common mistake with segue?

SEEG or SEG-yoo — reading the -ue as in “argue”. It is Italian, so the -gue is not the silent French ending of “tongue” or “vague”. Many people know the sound from speech and the spelling from print without ever connecting the two.

The full sound library

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