r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
How to pronounce rains in American English
RAYNZ
Start here
Americans pronounce rains as RAYNZ (/reɪnz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Let's get out of here before it rains" or "If it rains tomorrow, the picnic will be cancelled" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "rains" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "rains".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
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.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "rains" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "rains" 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 "RAYNZ" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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