How to pronounce skin in American English

IPA /skɪn/ Syllables 1 · skihn Stress 1st syllable

SKIHN

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Americans pronounce skin as SKIHN (/skɪn/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Snakes shed their skin as they grow larger".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "skin".

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.

k/k/

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

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.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

In real conversation

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

"Snakes shed their skin as they grow larger."

SNAYKS SHEHD dhair SKIHN uhz dhay GROH LAR·jer

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Questions

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