How to pronounce guess in American English

IPA /gɛs/ Syllables 1 · gehs Stress 1st syllable

GEHS

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Americans pronounce guess as GEHS (/gɛs/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Yes, I guess so" or "I had to guess some of the answers" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "guess".

1 syllable, 3 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.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "guess" in the wild.

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

"He uses context clues to guess the meaning of unknown words."

hee YOO·zuhz KAHN·tehkst KLOOZ tuh GEHS dhuh MEE·nuhng uhv uhn·NOHN WURDZ

"I guess we're running out of gas again."

ahy GEHS weer RUH·nuhng OWT uhv GAS uh·GEHN

"I had to guess some of the answers."

ahy had tuh GEHS suhm uhv dhee AN·serz

"The serious scientist assessed the fossil guess."

dhuh SEER·ee·uhs SAHY·uhn·tuhst uh·SEHST dhuh FAH·suhl GEHS

"Yes, I guess so."

yehs ahy GEHS SOH

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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