How to pronounce crossed in American English

IPA /krɑst/ Syllables 1 · krahst Stress 1st syllable

KRAHST

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Americans pronounce crossed as KRAHST (/krɑst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He crossed the bridge over the wide river".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "crossed".

1 syllable, 5 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.

r/r/

Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.

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.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

t/t/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.

In real conversation

Hear "crossed" in the wild.

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

"He crossed the bridge over the wide river."

hee KRAHST dhuh BRIHJ OH·ver dhuh WAHYD RIH·ver

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Questions

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