v/v/
Lift your bottom lip so its inner edge (where the wet part meets the dry part) touches the very bottom of your top front teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you blow air through.
How to pronounce vaccine in American English
vak·SEEN
Start here
Americans pronounce vaccine as vak-SEEN (/vækˈsin/). Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The medical community is searching for a vaccine for the virus".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "vaccine".
2 syllables, 6 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.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
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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 second syllable, not the others. Stretch SEEN — keep everything else short and quick.
VAK·seen→vak·SEEN
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "vaccine" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SEEN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "vak-SEEN" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "vaccine" 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 "vak-SEEN" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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