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.
How to pronounce net in American English
NEHT
Start here
Americans pronounce net as NEHT (/nɛt/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The hockey players skated aggressively towards the net" or "He plays the position of goalkeeper and protects the net" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "net".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "net" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He plays the position of goalkeeper and protects the net."
hee PLAYZ dhuh puh·ZIH·shuhn uhv GOHL·kee·per and pruh·TEHKTS dhuh NEHT
"He tracks his net worth quarterly to monitor his financial progress."
hee TRAKS hihz NEHT WURTH KWOR·ter·lee tuh MAH·nuh·ter hihz fuh·NAN·shuhl PRAH·gruhs
"The hockey players skated aggressively towards the net."
dhuh HAH·kee PLAY·erz SKAY·duhd uh·GREH·suhv·lee TORDZ dhuh NEHT
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "net", the "t" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
net→NEHT
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "net" 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 "NEHT" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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