How to pronounce clothes in American English

IPA /kloʊz/ Syllables 1 · klohz Stress 1st syllable

KLOHZ

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Americans pronounce clothes as KLOHZ (/kloʊz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "I asked if those clothes on the desk were yours" or "She asked him to wash the clothes for two months" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "clothes".

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.

oh/oʊ/

Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "clothes" in the wild.

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

"He asked for new clothes after three months of work."

hee ASKT fer NOO KLOHZ AF·ter THREE MUHNTHS uhv WURK

"I laid out my clothes the night before to save time."

ahy LAYD OWT mahy KLOHZ dhuh NAHYT buh·FOR tuh SAYV TAHYM

"She organized the closet and donated clothes she no longer wears."

shee OR·guh·nahyzd dhuh KLAH·zuht and DOH·nay·tuhd KLOHZ shee NOH LAHNG·ger WAIRZ

"She sews her own clothes using patterns she modifies."

shee SOHZ her ohn KLOHZ YOO·zuhng PA·dernz shee MAH·duh·fahyz

"I asked if those clothes on the desk were yours."

ahy ASKT ihf dhohz KLOHDHZ ahn dhuh DEHSK wer YORZ

"She asked him to wash the clothes for two months."

shee ASKT hihm tuh WAHSH dhuh KLOHZ fer TOO MUHNTHS

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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