How to pronounce text in American English
TEHKST
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Americans pronounce text as TEHKST (/tɛkst/).
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Why it sounds different
Why "text" sounds like TEHKST.
The "" at the end of "" is dropped before the consonant starting "" — the surrounding consonants flow directly together — common in flowing natural speech; in careful or formal speech, the sound is often kept. This is called the Silent T/D Across Words, the way sentences stop sounding like a list and start sounding like speech. It comes out as TEHKST.
In real conversation
Hear "text" in the wild.
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"Did you get the text message I sent?"
dihd yoo GEHT dhuh TEHKST MEH·suhj ahy SEHNT
"He analyzed the symbolism in the text for his literature class."
hee A·nuh·lahyzd dhuh SIHM·buh·lih·zuhm ihn dhuh TEHKST fer hihz LIH·duh·ruh·chur KLAS
"I prefer visual learning materials over purely text-based resources."
ahy pruh·FUR VIH·zhoo·uhl LUR·nuhng muh·TEER·ee·uhlz OH·ver PYUUR·lee TEHKST BAYST REE·sor·suhz
"I'll text you the information."
ahyl TEHKST yoo dhee ihn·fer·MAY·shuhn
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "text" 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 "TEHKST" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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