f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
How to pronounce finish in American English
FIH·nuhsh
Start here
Americans pronounce finish as FIH-nuhsh (/ˈfɪnəʃ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Her top priority is to finish school" or "It was a bad day from start to finish" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "finish".
2 syllables, 5 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.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "finish" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"After we finish dinner, let's go for a walk."
AF·ter wee FIH·nuhsh DIH·ner LEHTS GOH fer uh WAHK
"Her top priority is to finish school."
her TAHP prahy·OR·uh·tee ihz tuh FIH·nihsh SKOOL
"I need about thirty minutes to finish this."
ahy NEED uh·BOWT THUR·dee MIH·nuhts tuh FIH·nihsh dhihs
"I need to call my mom, schedule an appointment, and finish this report."
ahy NEED tuh KAHL mahy MAHM SKEH·juhl uhn uh·POYNT·muhnt and FIH·nuhsh dhihs ruh·PORT
"I struggle to finish books that start very slowly."
ahy STRUH·guhl tuh FIH·nihsh BUUKS dhuht START VEH·ree SLOH·lee
"It took a lot of time to finish the job."
iht TUUK uh LAHT uhv TAHYM tuh FIH·nuhsh dhuh JAHB
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch FIH — keep everything else short and quick.
fih·NUHSH→FIH·nuhsh
02
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.
FIH·NUHSH→FIH·nuhsh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "finish" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "FIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "FIH-nuhsh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "finish" 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 "FIH-nuhsh" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "finish" 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 "FIH-nuhsh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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