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 sister in American English
SIH·ster
Start here
Americans pronounce sister as SIH-ster (/ˈsɪstər/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "My sister is a teacher" or "I need to pick up my sister at three" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "sister" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "sister".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then 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.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
In real conversation
Hear "sister" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He gave his sister the concert tickets."
hee GAYV hihz SIH·ster dhuh KAHN·sert TIH·kuhts
"I need to pick up my sister at three."
ahy NEED tuh PIHK UHP mahy SIH·ster uht THREE
"My sister is a teacher."
mahy SIH·ster ihz uh TEE·cher
"She says her sister is coming to visit."
shee SEHZ her SIH·ster ihz KUH·muhng tuh VIH·zuht
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 SIH — keep everything else short and quick.
sih·STER→SIH·ster
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 "sister" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SIH-ster" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "sister"?
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 "sister" 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 "SIH-ster" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "sister". 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.