The spelling of the word ‘Christmas’ is deceiving. There’s a T in the spelling but it is not pronounced.
The word Christmas is made of two syllables:
- kris [IPA: kɹɪs]
You start with the K Sound, then you round your lips for the R, and move into an ‘i’ as in ‘sit’. You close this syllable with an S sound. - m’s [IPA: məs]
You start with an M sound and then you move to a schwa sound and finish with an S sound. The schwa is very short, and it’s as if it’s not even there. Imagine moving from an M to an S right away, with nothing in between.
The primary stress or emphasis is on the first syllable: KRIS-m’s.
Watch my tutorial and practice with me:
Now that you know how to pronounce ‘Christmas’, maybe you’d like to learn some more words for the holiday season? Here’s a tutorial on Santa-Claus and a podcast about Christmas vocabulary.
And if you want a little bit of practice, why don’t use this practice lesson with Bill Murray’s Speech analysis.
Additional resources:
