s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
How to pronounce says in American English
SEHZ
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Americans pronounce says as SEHZ (/sɛz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She says her sister is coming to visit" or "The weather report says it's going to rain" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "says".
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.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "says" 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 "says" 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 "SEHZ" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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