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/).

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Sounds

75%

Clarity

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Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

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"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

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.

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