ch/tʃ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'sh' position. Flare your lips.
How to pronounce chickens in American English
CHIH·kuhnz
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Americans pronounce chickens as CHIH-kuhnz (/ˈtʃɪkənz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She raises chickens in her backyard for fresh eggs".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "chickens".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
n/n/
SyllabicThe schwa before N disappears — N becomes the vowel of the syllable. Go straight from the previous consonant to N.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
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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
Inserting a vowel before the syllabic consonant.
In "chickens", the short unstressed vowel before "n" disappears — the schwa is absorbed and the "n" becomes the syllable nucleus on its own. Schwa is absorbed — consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.
chickens→CHIH·kuhnz
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch CHIH — keep everything else short and quick.
chih·KUHNZ→CHIH·kuhnz
03
Pronouncing the unstressed 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.
CHIH·KUHNZ→CHIH·kuhnz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "chickens" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "CHIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "CHIH-kuhnz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "chickens" 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 "CHIH-kuhnz" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "chickens" 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 "CHIH-kuhnz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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