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 sink in American English
SIHNGK
Start here
Americans pronounce sink as SIHNGK (/sɪŋk/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Does he think the soap is in the sink?" or "I think the dishes are still in the sink" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "sink" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "sink".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
In real conversation
Hear "sink" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Does he think the soap is in the sink?"
duhz hee THIHNGK dhuh SOHP ihz ihn dhuh SIHNGK
"She hired a plumber to fix the persistent leak under the sink."
shee HAHY·erd uh PLUH·mer tuh FIHKS dhuh per·SIH·stuhnt LEEK UHN·der dhuh SIHNGK
"The density of the object determines if it will float or sink."
dhuh DEHN·suh·tee uhv dhee AHB·jehkt duh·TUR·muhnz ihf iht wihl FLOHT or SIHNGK
"I think the dishes are still in the sink."
ahy THIHNGK dhuh DIH·shuhz er STIHL ihn dhuh SIHNGK
"I think the ship will sink into the thick mud."
ahy THIHNGK dhuh SHIHP wihl SIHNGK IHN·tuh dhuh THIHK MUHD
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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "sink", the "k" 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.
sink→SIHNGK
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "sink" 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 "SIHNGK" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "sink". 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.