How to pronounce likes in American English

IPA /laɪks/ Syllables 1 · lahyks Stress 1st syllable

LAHYKS

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Americans pronounce likes as LAHYKS (/laɪks/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She has a pet cat she likes to pat" or "He likes cream and sugar in his coffee" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "likes".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

l/l/

Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.

ahy/aɪ/

Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.

k/k/

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

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 "likes" in the wild.

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

"He likes cream and sugar in his coffee."

hee LAHYKS kreem and SHUU·ger ihn hihz KAH·fee

"She has a pet cat she likes to pat."

shee huhz uh PEHT kat shee LAHYKS tuh PAT

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Questions

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