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.
How to pronounce increase in American English
ihn·KREES
Start here
Americans pronounce increase as ihn-KREES (/ɪnˈkris/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The senator proposed a bill to increase funding for education" or "The central bank announced an increase in interest rates yesterday" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "increase".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
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 "increase" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The central bank announced an increase in interest rates yesterday."
dhuh SEHN·truhl BANGK uh·NOWNST uhn IHN·krees ihn IHN·truhst RAYTS YEH·ster·day
"The cost of living increase affected how much I could save monthly."
dhuh kahst uhv LIH·vuhng IHN·krees uh·FEHK·tuhd HOW muhch ahy kuud SAYV MUHNTH·lee
"The senator proposed a bill to increase funding for education."
dhuh SEH·nuh·ter pruh·POHZD uh BIHL tuh ihn·KREES FUHN·duhng fer eh·juh·KAY·shuhn
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch KREES — keep everything else short and quick.
IHN·krees→ihn·KREES
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "increase" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "KREES" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ihn-KREES" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "increase" 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 "ihn-KREES" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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