How to pronounce fish in American English

IPA /fɪʃ/ Syllables 1 · fihsh Stress 1st syllable

FIHSH

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Americans pronounce fish as FIHSH (/fɪʃ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Fish is fresh" or "Five fast fish" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "fish".

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

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

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.

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 "fish" in the wild.

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

"Fifty five fresh fish were fried for food."

FIHF·tee FAHYV FREHSH FIHSH wer FRAHYD fer FOOD

"Fish is fresh."

FIHSH ihz FREHSH

"He keeps a tropical fish tank in his living room."

hee KEEPS uh TRAH·puh·kuhl FIHSH TANGK ihn hihz LIH·vuhng ROOM

"Pollution in the river affects the local fish population."

puh·LOO·shuhn ihn dhuh RIH·ver uh·FEHKTS dhuh LOH·kuhl FIHSH pah·pyuh·LAY·shuhn

"She visited the aquarium to learn about different fish species."

shee VIH·zuh·tuhd dhee uh·KWAIR·ee·uhm tuh LURN uh·BOWT DIH·fer·uhnt FIHSH SPEE·sheez

"We're having fish and chips for dinner."

weer HA·vuhng FIHSH and CHIHPS fer DIH·ner

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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