How to pronounce knee in American English

IPA /ni/ Syllables 1 · nee Stress 1st syllable

NEE

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Americans pronounce knee as NEE (/ni/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He hurt his knee while jogging and needed to see a doctor" or "She put on her helmet and knee pads before riding the bike" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "knee".

1 syllable, 2 sounds. 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.

ee/i/

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

In real conversation

Hear "knee" in the wild.

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

"He hurt his knee while jogging and needed to see a doctor."

hee HURT hihz NEE WAHYL JAH·guhng and NEE·duhd tuh SEE uh DAHK·ter

"She put on her helmet and knee pads before riding the bike."

shee PUUT AHN her HEHL·muht and NEE PADZ buh·FOR RAHY·duhng dhuh BAHYK

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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