How to pronounce snakes in American English

IPA /sneɪks/ Syllables 1 · snayks Stress 1st syllable

SNAYKS

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Americans pronounce snakes as SNAYKS (/sneɪks/).

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Sounds

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Clarity

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Stress

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Intonation

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Fluency

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"Six small snakes."

SIHKS SMAHL SNAYKS

"Snakes shed their skin as they grow larger."

SNAYKS SHEHD dhair SKIHN uhz dhay GROH LAR·jer

"Six snakes hissed across the soft grass."

SIHKS SNAYKS HIHST uh·KRAHS dhuh sahft GRAS

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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

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