How to pronounce gives in American English

IPA /ɡɪvz/ Syllables 1 · gihvz Stress 1st syllable

GIHVZ

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Americans pronounce gives as GIHVZ (/ɡɪvz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The gym membership gives access to the pool and sauna" or "The perspective in this drawing gives a sense of depth" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "gives".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

g/g/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate. Add vocal cord vibration, then release.

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.

v/v/

Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "gives" in the wild.

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

"The gym membership gives access to the pool and sauna."

dhuh JIHM MEHM·ber·shihp GIHVZ AK·suhs tuh dhuh POOL and SAH·nuh

"The perspective in this drawing gives a sense of depth."

dhuh per·SPEHK·tuhv ihn dhihs DRAH·uhng GIHVZ uh SEHNS uhv dehpth

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Questions

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