How to pronounce clause in American English

IPA /klɑz/ Syllables 1 · klahz Stress 1st syllable

KLAHZ

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Americans pronounce clause as KLAHZ (/klɑz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The contract includes a clause for early termination if needed" or "The exclusivity clause is a critical point for our partnership" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "clause".

1 syllable, 4 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.

l/l/

Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.

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 "clause" in the wild.

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

"The contract includes a clause for early termination if needed."

dhuh KAHN·trakt uhn·KLOODZ uh KLAHZ fer UR·lee tur·muh·NAY·shuhn ihf NEE·duhd

"The exclusivity clause is a critical point for our partnership."

dhee ehks·kloo·SIH·vuh·tee KLAHZ ihz uh KRIH·duh·kuhl POYNT fer owr PART·ner·shihp

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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