Pronunciation · Everyday language

How to pronounce herb

Herb can start with or without an h in CMUdict, ERB or HERB, and US cooking narration usually drops it.

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The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists these 2 North American English pronunciations for herb. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

ER1 B

Syllable estimate: 1 vowel nucleus
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

HH ER1 B

Syllable estimate: 1 vowel nucleus
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check herb in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio.

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

Use herb in context

Herb appears in recipes, garden guides and wellness content. CMUdict lists ER1 B with no h and HH ER1 B with one. US speakers commonly drop the h, which also changes "a herb" to "an herb" in the script.

Chop the fresh herb right before you add it to the sauce.
Each herb in the garden has its own label.

Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of herb. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A).

ERsound in hurtvowel

Bsound in beconsonant

HHsound in heconsonant

Take it to your next recording

Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Worksheet pronunciation variant

Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce herb

Word: herb
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: ER1 B
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 1
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Chop the fresh herb right before you add it to the sauce.
Each herb in the garden has its own label.

REVIEW CHECKLIST
[ ] Read both sentences naturally; keep the source wording.
[ ] Compare the intended pronunciation with the selected dictionary variant.
[ ] Listen for vowel sounds, consonants, and word stress in context.
[ ] Check with a speaker or another dictionary when accent or meaning matters.
[ ] Generate and listen to a short Murmur sample before exporting the full script.

Practice note: Settle the h first, then check the article in front of each instance so the sentence reads smoothly. Read one complete recipe step to confirm the choice sounds natural.

CMUdict is a North American English lexicon, not a recording or a complete accent guide.
Variant order is dictionary order; it is not a ranking of correctness.
Source: https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict
Source commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690
License: https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt
Reference: https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/herb

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Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

CMUdict README · Included dictionary license

Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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