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 wishes in American English
WIH·shuhz
Start here
Americans pronounce wishes as WIH-shuhz (/ˈwɪʃəz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "I wanted to express my warmest wishes on this joyous occasion".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "wishes".
2 syllables, 5 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
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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 WIH — keep everything else short and quick.
wih·SHUHZ→WIH·shuhz
02
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
WIH·SHUHZ→WIH·shuhz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "wishes" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "WIH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "WIH-shuhz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "wishes" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "WIH-shuhz" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "wishes" 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 "WIH-shuhz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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