sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
How to pronounce chicago in American English
shuh·KAH·goh
Start here
Americans pronounce chicago as shuh-KAH-goh (/ʃəˈkɑgoʊ/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "They live in Chicago, don't they?".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "chicago".
3 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
g/g/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
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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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch KAH — keep everything else short and quick.
SHUH·kah·GOH→shuh·KAH·goh
02
Pronouncing the first syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
SHUH·KAH·goh→shuh·KAH·goh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "chicago" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "KAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "shuh-KAH-goh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the first syllable in "chicago" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "shuh-KAH-goh" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "chicago" 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 "shuh-KAH-goh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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