SUHK-ing
/ˈsʌkɪŋ/
sucking is pronounced SUHK-ing (/ˈsʌkɪŋ/). Sucking refers to drawing a substance or air into the mouth by creating a negative pressure with the lips and tongue. It can describe a reflex action in infants, a method of feeding, or a figurative, often negative, description of handling something. In phonetics, it yields a hard, clipped /s/ initial followed by a velar or alveolar glide depending on context.
Sucking refers to drawing a substance or air into the mouth by creating a negative pressure with the lips and tongue. It can describe a reflex action in infants, a method of feeding, or a figurative, often negative, description of handling something. In phonetics, it yields a hard, clipped /s/ initial followed by a velar or alveolar glide depending on context.
"The baby has been nursing and sucking on a pacifier."
"She disliked the sour candy and started sucking on it to neutralize the taste."
"He exaggeratedly sucked in air to imitate a vacuum sound for the video."
pronounce as /ˈsʌkɪŋ/. The first syllable has primary stress; the vowel is the short ‘uh’ as in 'strut', followed by a short /ɪ/ and end with /ŋ/. Mouth position: lips relaxed and slightly rounded for /s/ emission, tongue tip near the alveolar ridge for /s/ and /ɪ/, back of tongue slightly raised for the final velar nasal /ŋ/. Tip: keep the /k/ sound crisp and avoid turning it into /t/ or a soft /g/ sound. Audio reference you can check is in standard pronunciation resources such as Cambridge or Forvo.
Two common mistakes: 1) Slurring the final /ŋ/ into an /n/ or /ŋg/; keep it as a clear velar nasal /ŋ/. 2) Reducing the first vowel to a schwa or merging /ʌ/ with /ɪ/: maintain the /ʌ/ in the first syllable and a distinct /ɪ/ in the second. Practice with contrastive drills: /ˈsʌk/ vs /ˈsuːk/ is not correct; emphasize the short, stressed /ʌ/, then a short /ɪ/. These adjustments prevent a lisping or diphthongization that muddles the word.
In US English, /ˈsʌkɪŋ/ has a rhotic, flat /ɚ in some contexts as ˈsʌkɪŋ; in some dialects the /ɪ/ may be shorter or reduced in fast speech. UK English keeps the same primary stress pattern but the /ʌ/ tends to be a bit more centralized; in some Southern British accents, vowel quality may rise slightly. Australian English often features a more centralized /ɪ/ and a mild vowel shift, and you may hear a slightly more rolled /l/ effect in some speakers, though the core /ˈsʌkɪŋ/ remains stable. The /ŋ/ remains alveolar-velar in all three.
The challenge lies in the final velar nasal /ŋ/ after a short, close vowel sequence; closing with /ŋ/ can be tricky if your tongue drops too soon. The /ʌ/ in the first syllable is a lax vowel that often dips into schwa in casual speech, blurring the stress cue. Another challenge is articulating a crisp /k/ immediately before /ɪ/ without a voice change or fusion to /g/. Focusing on precise tongue tip contact for /s/ and keeping the tongue high for /ŋ/ helps.
The unique feature is the cluster transition from a voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ to a high front lax vowel /ʌ/ and then a short /ɪ/ before a velar nasal /ŋ/. The critical articulation is maintaining the alveolar friction for /s/ without rolling the tongue and keeping the /k/ crisp before /ɪ/. You’ll want to avoid assimilations that turn /s/ into /z/ or /k/ into a following /g/ sound, especially in rapid speech.
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The verb suck derives from Old English sacian, related to the Proto-Germanic *sukjaną. Its core meaning—draw in a substance by sucking—dates to Proto-Indo-European roots connected with suction and drawing. The -ing participle emerged in Middle English as -ing forms proliferated during the shift from Old English into Early Modern English, aligning with the general verb conjugation pattern for English in the 14th–16th centuries. The term has long carried both literal meanings (infant feeding, mouth actions) and metaphorical senses (to feel deeply, to crave strongly, to take in or adopt). In modern usage, sucking also plays a role in slang and colloquial expressions that emphasize negative judgments or intensive actions, and it retains a strong presence in medical and dental discourse regarding oral habits. The word's first attestations appear in religious and medical texts, but its most stable, everyday presence emerges from child-rearing and culinary contexts in the late medieval to early modern periods, when infant care practices consolidated the term in common usage.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "sucking" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "sucking" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "sucking"
-ing sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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