How to pronounce brakes in American English

IPA /breɪks/ Syllables 1 · brayks Stress 1st syllable

BRAYKS

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Americans pronounce brakes as BRAYKS (/breɪks/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The mechanic said the car needs new brakes and an oil change".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "brakes".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

b/b/

Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.

r/r/

Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.

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.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "brakes" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"The mechanic said the car needs new brakes and an oil change."

dhuh muh·KA·nuhk sehd dhuh KAR NEEDZ noo BRAYKS and uhn OYL CHAYNJ

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "brakes" 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 "BRAYKS" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.