w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
How to pronounce weekends in American English
WEE·kehndz
Start here
Americans pronounce weekends as WEE-kehndz (/ˈwikɛndz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She performs in a local improv troupe on weekends" or "I shower quickly on weekdays but take my time on weekends" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "weekends".
2 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
k/k/
Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
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.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "weekends" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He spends his weekends coding small games and applications."
hee SPEHNDZ hihz WEE·kehndz KOH·duhng SMAHL GAYMZ and a·pluh·KAY·shuhnz
"I shower quickly on weekdays but take my time on weekends."
ahy SHOW·er KWIH·klee ahn WEEK·dayz buht TAYK mahy TAHYM ahn WEE·kehndz
"She performs in a local improv troupe on weekends."
shee per·FORMZ ihn uh LOH·kuhl IHM·prahv TROOP ahn WEE·kehndz
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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 WEE — keep everything else short and quick.
wee·KEHNDZ→WEE·kehndz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "weekends" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "WEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "WEE-kehndz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "weekends" 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 "WEE-kehndz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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