English pronunciation · Words Starting with B
Banana Pronunciation
Banana is pronounced buh-NA-nuh, IPA /bəˈnænə/.
buh-NA-nuh
US /bəˈnænə/ · UK /bəˈnɑːnə/
Syllables: buh · NA · nuh (3 syllables, stress on syllable 2)
noun: A long curved yellow fruit that grows in bunches in the tropics.
Audio for the American and British pronunciations plays on this page with JavaScript enabled.
Banana in a Sentence
- Slice a banana over the porridge.
- The banana had gone brown in the bag.
- Banana plants are herbs rather than trees.
Common Mispronunciations of Banana
Not BA-nuh-nuh
The middle syllable is the only loud one, and the two around it reduce to a colourless uh. The spelling gives no hint of that.
Not buh-NAY-nuh
The stressed vowel is the flat a of cat in America and the long ah of father in Britain. Neither uses the ay of name.
Tip: Three a letters, three different sounds, which is why the word turns up in textbooks so often.
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