How to pronounce cause in American English

IPA /kɔz/ Syllables 1 · kahz Stress 1st syllable

KAHZ

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Americans pronounce cause as KAHZ (/kɔz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Does the noise cause the boys to pause?" or "The police are investigating the cause" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "cause".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

ah/ɑ/

Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.

z/z/

Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.

In real conversation

Hear "cause" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Does the noise cause the boys to pause?"

duhz dhuh NOYZ KAHZ dhuh BOYZ tuh PAHZ

"Genetic mutations can sometimes cause inherited diseases."

juh·NEH·duhk myoo·TAY·shuhnz kuhn suhm·TAHYMZ KAHZ uhn·HAIR·uh·tuhd dih·ZEE·zuhz

"I never intended to cause you any pain or distress."

ahy NEH·ver uhn·TEHN·duhd tuh KAHZ yoo EH·nee PAYN er duh·STREHS

"The police are investigating the cause."

dhuh puh·LEES er ihn·VEH·stuh·gay·duhng dhuh KAHZ

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "cause" 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 "KAHZ" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.