How to pronounce cups in American English

IPA /kʌps/ Syllables 1 · kuhps Stress 1st syllable

KUHPS

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Americans pronounce cups as KUHPS (/kʌps/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She drinks two cups of coffee before she feels fully awake" or "The recipe calls for two cups of flour and one edible flower" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "cups".

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.

uh/ʌ/

Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.

p/p/

Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.

s/s/

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

In real conversation

Hear "cups" in the wild.

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

"She drinks two cups of coffee before she feels fully awake."

shee DRIHNGKS TOO KUHPS uhv KAH·fee buh·FOR shee FEELZ FUU·lee uh·WAYK

"The recipe calls for two cups of flour and one edible flower."

dhuh REH·suh·pee KAHLZ fer TOO KUHPS uhv FLOW·er uhnd wuhn EH·duh·buhl FLOW·er

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Questions

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