How to pronounce cow in American English

IPA /kaʊ/ Syllables 1 · kow Stress 1st syllable

KOW

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Americans pronounce cow as KOW (/kaʊ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "How goes the cow?".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "cow".

1 syllable, 2 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.

ow/aʊ/

Start with a dropped jaw and flat tongue. Glide into a relaxed, slightly rounded lip position as the back of the tongue stretches up.

In real conversation

Hear "cow" in the wild.

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

"How goes the cow?"

HOW GOHZ dhuh KOW

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Questions

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