How to pronounce slip in American English

IPA /slɪp/ Syllables 1 · slihp Stress 1st syllable

SLIHP

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Americans pronounce slip as SLIHP (/slɪp/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Did he slip when he was trying to sleep?".

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Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Common mistakes

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "slip", the "p" 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.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "slip".

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.

l/l/

Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.

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.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

In real conversation

Hear "slip" in the wild.

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

"Did he slip when he was trying to sleep?"

dihd hee SLIHP wehn hee wuhz TRAHY·uhng tuh SLEEP

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Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

In "slip", the "p" 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.

slip→SLIHP

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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

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Overall assessment

Common mistakes

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

Every sound in "slip".

Hear "slip" in the wild.

Words that work the same way.

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.

Questions people ask about this.

Stop reading about "slip". Start saying it.