How to pronounce he's in American English

IPA /hiz/ Syllables 1 · heez

heez

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Americans pronounce he's as heez (/hiz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He's a good friend of mine" or "He's from a city near the coast" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "he's".

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

h/h/

Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "he's" in the wild.

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

"He's a good friend of mine."

heez uh GUUD FREHND uhv MAHYN

"He's been living in the city for six weeks."

heez bihn LIH·vuhng ihn dhuh SIH·dee fer SIHKS WEEKS

"He's been studying English for almost three years."

heez bihn STUH·dee·uhng IHNG·gluhsh fer AHL·mohst THREE YEERZ

"He's been working on that project all evening."

heez bihn WUR·kuhng ahn dhat PRAH·jehkt AHL EEV·nuhng

"He's decided to accept the new job offer."

heez duh·SAHY·duhd tuh uhk·SEHPT dhuh noo JAHB AH·fer

"He's going to put on a jacket because it's cold."

heez GOH·uhng tuh PUUT AHN uh JA·kuht buh·KUHZ ihts KOHLD

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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