How to pronounce risks in American English

IPA /rɪsks/ Syllables 1 · rihsks Stress 1st syllable

RIHSKS

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Americans pronounce risks as RIHSKS (/rɪsks/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I would argue that the benefits outweigh the potential risks" or "The environmental impact assessment evaluates potential risks" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "risks".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

ih/ɪ/

Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

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 "risks" in the wild.

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

"I would argue that the benefits outweigh the potential risks."

ahy wuud AR·gyoo dhuht dhuh BEH·nuh·fuhts owt·WAY dhuh puh·TEHN·shuhl RIHSKS

"The environmental impact assessment evaluates potential risks."

dhee uhn·vahy·ruhn·MEHN·tuhl IHM·pakt uh·SEH·smuhnt uh·VAL·yoo·ayts puh·TEHN·shuhl RIHSKS

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Questions

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