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 scope in American English
SKOHP
Start here
Americans pronounce scope as SKOHP (/skoʊp/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I struggled to narrow down my topic to a manageable scope".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "scope".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. 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.
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.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
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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 "scope", the "p" 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.
scope→SKOHP
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "scope" 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 "SKOHP" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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