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 scarecrow in American English
SKAIR·kroh
Start here
Americans pronounce scarecrow as SKAIR-kroh (/ˈskɛrˌkroʊ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The scarecrow keeps the birds away from the cornfield".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "scarecrow".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
air/ɛr/
Start with the 'eh' vowel mouth position. Pull the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
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.
oh/oʊ/
Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.
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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
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SKAIR — keep everything else short and quick.
skair·KROH→SKAIR·KROH
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "scarecrow" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SKAIR" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SKAIR-kroh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "scarecrow"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "scarecrow" 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 "SKAIR-kroh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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