One syllable: hens.
/hɛnz/
hens is pronounced /hɛnz/. It has one syllable (hens), with the stress on "hens". Hens is the plural of hen, referring to adult female chickens. In everyday speech it denotes multiple female poultry, used in farming, cooking, and discussions about birds. The term is common in both agricultural and domestic contexts and contrasts with roosters or cocks. Pronunciation is a straightforward one-syllable /hɛnz/ with a final z sound.
Say it backHens is the plural of hen, referring to adult female chickens. In everyday speech it denotes multiple female poultry, used in farming, cooking, and discussions about birds. The term is common in both agricultural and domestic contexts and contrasts with roosters or cocks. Pronunciation is a straightforward one-syllable /hɛnz/ with a final z sound.
"The hens wandered the coop, pecking at the feed."
"She collects eggs from the hens every morning."
"In the backyard, a few hens scratch in the dirt for insects."
Pronounce it as /hɛnz/ in US and UK English; start with a light breathy /h/, open-mid front lax vowel /ɛ/ as in ‘bed’, then a clear /n/ and final voiced /z/. The word is one syllable with a short, clipped ending; keep the z sound audible but not exaggerated. In connected speech you might hear a slight lengthening of the vowel before /z/ when emphasizing, but the core remains /hɛnz/. IPA reference: US/UK /hɛnz/.
Common errors: (1) pronouncing /h/ without adequate breath, (2) replacing /ɛ/ with /æ/ as in 'hat', giving /hænz/, (3) devoicing the final /z/ to /s/. Corrections: ensure a light aspiration on /h/, use a mid-front lax vowel /ɛ/ as in 'bed', and voice the final consonant as /z/ with vocal fold vibration, not /s/. Quick check: say 'hen' and add z swiftly without a pause.
US and UK both render as /hɛnz/ in casual speech, with minor vowel quality differences: US /ɛ/ may be slightly tenser, UK /e/ closer to /e/ in 'dress' for some speakers. Australian English tends to be similar but with a more centralized or slightly broader vowel in casual speech; some speakers may reduce vowel duration slightly in rapid speech. The final /z/ remains voiced across accents.
For advanced learners, difficulty comes from the final voiced sibilant /z/ after a short /ɛ/ in a closed syllable; transitional mouth position changes quickly between /n/ and /z/. Also, ensuring voicing on /z/ without creating a separate syllable can be tricky in fast speech. Practice with continuous phonation: /h/ onset, /ɛ/ vowel, /n/ nucleus, then keep the voice on /z/ through the end.
No silent letters in hens; it is a single-syllable word with primary stress on the whole syllable (level stress as a normal monosyllable). The challenge is maintaining voiced /z/ rather than switching to /s/ in rapid speech or when followed by a voiceless consonant. Focus on sustaining voice on /z/ without creating a separate vowel.
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Hens derives from Old English hens, from Proto-Germanic *henniz, related to Dutch hoen and German Henne. The word traces to Proto-Indo-European roots *ken-/*ken- indicating a female animal in some Germanic languages, with counterpart terms for male birds (rooster/cock). In Middle English, hens referred specifically to adult female fowl, distinguishing from cwen, henna-like terms for other birds in food and farming parlance. The sense broadened as domesticated fowl became widespread in Europe, with the term solidifying in agricultural vocabularies by the 12th–14th centuries. In modern usage, hens are primarily discussed in farming, poultry management, and egg production, while in colloquial speech the plural form simply marks more than one adult female chicken. Influence from rhotic dialects or regional farm slang has preserved occasional spelling variants in historical records, but today hens is the standard plural form. First known written usage in English appears in medieval farming manuals and gentry inventories, where hens were routinely cataloged alongside other livestock.
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Words that rhyme with "hens"
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