ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
How to pronounce ached in American English
AYKT
Start here
Americans pronounce ached as AYKT (/eɪkt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Every muscle in his arm ached after cooking the mussel dish".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "ached".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "ached", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
ached→AYKT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "ached" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "AYKT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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