Slova
Handkerchief is pronounced HANG-ker-cheef in American English and HANG-kuh-cheef in British English. It has three syllables with the stress on the first. The D is silent, so hand sounds like hang.
handkerchief
noun · a small square of cloth you use to wipe your nose or face
Also said: US /ˈhæŋ.kɚ.tʃɪf/; UK /ˈhæŋ.kə.tʃɪf/.
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford lists the ending as /tʃɪf/ (chif). Both are correct. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈhæŋ.kɚ.tʃiːf/
HANGstressed
ker
cheef
UK British English/ˈhæŋ.kə.tʃiːf/
HANGstressed
kuh
cheef
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes handkerchief, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Say HANG, as in hang up. The D is silent and the N blends into the K.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
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handkerchief
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say HANG-ker-cheef.
NotHAND-ker-cheef
Saying the D. It is silent, and the N turns into ng: HANG.
Nothand-KER-cheef
Stressing the middle. The stress is on the first syllable.
NotHANG-ker-chef
Reading chief like chef. The end is cheef or a short chif.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
He wiped his face with a white handkerchief.
My grandfather always carried a handkerchief in his pocket.
She waved her handkerchief as the train left.
The word is hand plus kerchief, a cloth for the head. A kerchief came from Old French and meant something that covers the head, so a handkerchief was literally a kerchief for the hand.
When hand comes right before K, the D is squeezed out. Then the N moves to the back of the mouth to meet the K, and becomes the ng sound in sing. That is why the start sounds like hang.
The end can be cheef or chif. Cambridge lists cheef first, and Oxford lists chif. Both are correct, so use the one you hear around you.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.