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/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Six small snakes" or "Six snakes hissed across the soft grass" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "snakes".

1 syllable, 5 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.

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.

ay/eɪ/

Start with your jaw slightly open and the front of your tongue forward and slightly up. Glide upward, your jaw closes a little more and your tongue arches higher toward the roof of the mouth.

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 "snakes" in the wild.

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

"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

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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.