Pronunciation · Work and business

How to pronounce mortgage

The t in mortgage is silent: CMUdict gives MOR-gij, with two listed vowels for the second syllable, and no "gage" ending.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

M AO1 R G AH0 JH

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

M AO1 R G IH0 JH

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check mortgage 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 mortgage in context

Mortgage is everywhere in personal finance, bank adverts and housing news. Readers sound the t or end on "gage" like engage. Both CMUdict forms drop the t and end in a short "ij".

They refinanced the mortgage when rates fell.
The mortgage payment is due on the first of the month.

Read the sound tokens

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

Msound in meconsonant

AOsound in oughtvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

Gsound in greenconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

JHsound in geeconsonant

IHsound in itvowel

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 mortgage

Word: mortgage
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: M AO1 R G AH0 JH
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
They refinanced the mortgage when rates fell.
The mortgage payment is due on the first of the month.

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: Think of it as "mor-gij". Nothing goes between the r and the g. The ending should match the last part of cabbage.

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/mortgage

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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.

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Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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