sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
How to pronounce shaky in American English
SHAY·kee
Start here
Americans pronounce shaky as SHAY-kee (/ˈʃeɪki/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The judge deducted points for the shaky landing".
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "shaky" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "shaky".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ay/eɪ/
Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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 SHAY — keep everything else short and quick.
shay·KEE→SHAY·kee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "shaky" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SHAY" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SHAY-kee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "shaky" 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 "SHAY-kee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "shaky". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.