How to pronounce ink in American English

IPA /ɪŋk/ Syllables 1 · ihngk Stress 1st syllable

IHNGK

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Americans pronounce ink as IHNGK (/ɪŋk/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Is this the green ink you need?".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "ink".

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

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.

ng/ŋ/

Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

In real conversation

Hear "ink" in the wild.

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

"Is this the green ink you need?"

ihz dhihs dhuh GREEN IHNGK yoo NEED

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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