How to pronounce sneak in American English

IPA /snik/ Syllables 1 · sneek Stress 1st syllable

SNEEK

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Americans pronounce sneak as SNEEK (/snik/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The holiday season always seems to sneak up on us, doesn't it?".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "sneak".

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.

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.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high 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.

In real conversation

Hear "sneak" in the wild.

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"The holiday season always seems to sneak up on us, doesn't it?"

dhuh HAH·luh·day SEE·zuhn AHL·wayz SEEMZ tuh SNEEK UHP ahn uhs DUH·zuhnt iht

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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