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.
How to pronounce taxi in American English
TAK·see
Start here
Americans pronounce taxi as TAK-see (/ˈtæksi/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "He took a taxi from the airport to the hotel downtown".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "taxi".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
a/æ/
Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.
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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high 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 TAK — keep everything else short and quick.
tak·SEE→TAK·see
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "taxi" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "TAK" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "TAK-see" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "taxi" 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 "TAK-see" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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