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 stingray in American English
STIHNG·ray
Start here
Americans pronounce stingray as STIHNG-ray (/ˈstɪŋˌreɪ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She watched the stingray glide along the ocean floor".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "stingray".
2 syllables, 6 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
t/t/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
ng/ŋ/
Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.
r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
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.
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch STIHNG — keep everything else short and quick.
stihng·RAY→STIHNG·RAY
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "stingray" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "STIHNG" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "STIHNG-ray" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "stingray" 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 "STIHNG-ray" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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