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 scored in American English
SKORD
Start here
Americans pronounce scored as SKORD (/skɔrd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She scored a hat trick by getting three goals" or "The crowd cheered loudly when the home team scored" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "scored".
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.
or/ɔr/
Start with the 'aw' jaw drop and rounded lips. Pull the tongue back and up while keeping the lips rounded for the R.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "scored" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"She scored a hat trick by getting three goals."
shee SKORD uh HAT TRIHK bahy GEH·duhng THREE GOHLZ
"The crowd cheered loudly when the home team scored."
dhuh KROWD CHEERD LOWD·lee wehn dhuh HOHM TEEM SKORD
"They scored a touchdown in the final seconds of the game."
dhay SKORD uh TUHCH·down ihn dhuh FAHY·nuhl SEH·kuhndz uhv dhuh GAYM
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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 "scored", the "d" 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.
scored→SKORD
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 do I pronounce the R in "scored"?
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 "scored" 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 "SKORD" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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