How to pronounce six in American English

IPA /sɪks/ Syllables 1 · sihks Stress 1st syllable

SIHKS

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Americans pronounce six as SIHKS (/sɪks/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Six small snakes" or "He finished six hard tasks at his desk" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "six".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

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.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "six" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"He feels a bit sick after eating six meals."

hee FEELZ uh BIHT SIHK AF·ter EE·duhng SIHKS MEELZ

"He finished six hard tasks at his desk."

hee FIH·nuhsht SIHKS HARD TASKS uht hihz DEHSK

"Like the look of the lake at six o'clock."

LAHYK dhuh LUUK uhv dhuh LAYK uht SIHKS uh·KLAHK

"She created an emergency fund covering six months of living expenses."

shee kree·AY·duhd uhn uh·MUR·juhn·see FUHND KUH·ver·uhng SIHKS MUHNTHS uhv LIH·vuhng uhk·SPEHN·suhz

"Six small snakes."

SIHKS SMAHL SNAYKS

"The duration of the flight is about six hours."

dhuh doo·RAY·shuhn uhv dhuh FLAHYT ihz uh·BOWT SIHKS OW·erz

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "six" 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 "SIHKS" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.