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 inmates in American English
IHN·mayts
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Americans pronounce inmates as IHN-mayts (/ˈɪnmeɪts/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She is working as a probation officer helping former inmates".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "inmates".
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.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
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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 first syllable, not the others. Stretch IHN — keep everything else short and quick.
ihn·MAYTS→IHN·mayts
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "inmates" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "IHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "IHN-mayts" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "inmates" 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-mayts" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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