How to pronounce cheese in American English

IPA /tʃiz/ Syllables 1 · cheez Stress 1st syllable

CHEEZ

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Americans pronounce cheese as CHEEZ (/tʃiz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Cheese and chips" or "Choose the cheap cheese and chicken chips" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "cheese".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

ch/tʃ/

Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'sh' position. Flare your lips.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

z/z/

Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.

In real conversation

Hear "cheese" in the wild.

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

"Cheese and chips."

CHEEZ and CHIHPS

"She visited a dairy farm to see how cheese is made."

shee VIH·zuh·tuhd uh DAIR·ee FARM tuh SEE HOW CHEEZ ihz MAYD

"Choose the cheap cheese and chicken chips."

CHOOZ dhuh CHEEP CHEEZ and CHIH·kuhn CHIHPS

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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