How to pronounce speaks in American English

IPA /spiks/ Syllables 1 · speeks Stress 1st syllable

SPEEKS

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Americans pronounce speaks as SPEEKS (/spiks/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "speaks".

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.

p/p/

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

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.

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

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

"He speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently."

hee SPEEKS IHNG·gluhsh SPA·nuhsh and FREHNCH FLOO·uhnt·lee

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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