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 stock in American English
STAHK
Start here
Americans pronounce stock as STAHK (/stɑk/). You'll hear it in sentences like "We should stock up on canned goods for the winter months" or "The stock portfolio has performed well despite the market volatility" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "stock".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. 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.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back 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 "stock" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Stock market volatility has investors concerned about their portfolios."
STAHK MAR·kuht vah·luh·TIH·luh·tee huhz ihn·VEH·sterz kuhn·SURND uh·BOWT dhair port·FOH·lee·ohz
"The stock portfolio has performed well despite the market volatility."
dhuh STAHK port·FOH·lee·oh huhz per·FORMD wehl duh·SPAHYT dhuh MAR·kuht vah·luh·TIH·luh·tee
"We should stock up on canned goods for the winter months."
wee shuud STAHK UHP ahn KAND GUUDZ fer dhuh WIHN·ter MUHNTHS
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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
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "stock", the "k" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
stock→STAHK
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "stock" 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 "STAHK" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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