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 smells in American English
SMEHLZ
Start here
Americans pronounce smells as SMEHLZ (/smɛlz/). The L in "smells" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. It comes out as SMEHLZ. You'll hear it in sentences like "Something smells amazing in the kitchen" or "The hotel suite smells like sweet fruit" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "smells" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "smells".
1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "smells" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Something smells amazing in the kitchen."
SUHM·thuhng SMEHLZ uh·MAY·zuhng ihn dhuh KIH·chuhn
"The bakery section smells absolutely wonderful in the mornings."
dhuh BAY·kuh·ree SEHK·shuhn SMEHLZ ab·suh·LOOT·lee WUHN·der·fuhl ihn dhuh MOR·nuhngz
"The hotel suite smells like sweet fruit."
dhuh hoh·TEHL SWEET SMEHLZ LAHYK SWEET FROOT
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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "smells" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
smells→SMEHLZ
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "smells" 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 "SMEHLZ" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "smells". 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.