How to pronounce “quinoa”

KEEN-wah

2 syllables · stress on “KEEN”

KEENwah

Britishˈkiːnwɑː

Americanˈkiːnwɑː

In short

“quinoa” is pronounced KEEN-wah: 2 syllables, with the stress on “KEEN”. The word is Quechua, filtered through Spanish. The qu is a plain /k/, the i carries the stress, and the oa collapses into a single “wah”. The version to avoid is kwi-NO-ah — three syllables, reading qu as /kw/ and sounding every vowel.

Say “quinoa” in 3 steps

1Two syllables: KEEN-wah.
2The qu is just /k/, not /kw/ — “keen”, not “kween”.
3Stress the first syllable.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: kwi-NO-ah — three syllables, reading qu as /kw/ and sounding every vowel

The word is Quechua, filtered through Spanish. The qu is a plain /k/, the i carries the stress, and the oa collapses into a single “wah”.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

No free human recording of “quinoa” exists yet in the public archives we draw on, so the audio above is our model voice. It is accurate for this word — a human clip would simply add natural variation on top.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

kk as in key iːee as in see nn as in no ww as in we ɑːar as in car

More food and drink words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

croissantKWAS-on gnocchiNYOK-ee bruschettabroo-SKET-uh espressoe-SPRES-oh jalapeñohal-uh-PAY-nyoh phoFUH

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce quinoa?

quinoa is pronounced KEEN-wah, written /ˈkiːnwɑː/ in IPA. Two syllables: KEEN-wah.

How many syllables are in quinoa?

two: KEEN-wah. The stress falls on “KEEN”.

What is the most common mistake with quinoa?

kwi-NO-ah — three syllables, reading qu as /kw/ and sounding every vowel. The word is Quechua, filtered through Spanish. The qu is a plain /k/, the i carries the stress, and the oa collapses into a single “wah”.

The full sound library

Next step

Find every word you're getting wrong

SpeakMetry's Pronunciation Coach scores your speech on the features IELTS examiners assess — individual sounds, word and sentence stress, intonation and rhythm — and builds a plan from your weakest sounds. Free to start.

Try the Pronunciation Coach free