How to pronounce laws in American English

IPA /lɑz/ Syllables 1 · lahz Stress 1st syllable
LAHZ
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Americans pronounce laws as LAHZ (/lɑz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "She explained Newton's laws of motion to the students" or "The police enforce traffic laws to ensure public safety" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "laws".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

Mouth position for /l/ as in LET
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.

Mouth position for FATHER Vowel
z/z/

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

Mouth position for /z/ as in ZOO
In real conversation

Hear "laws" in the wild.

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

"Privacy laws protect your personal information from unauthorized access."
PRAHY·vuh·see LAHZ pruh·TEHKT yor PUR·suh·nuhl ihn·fer·MAY·shuhn fruhm uh·NAH·thuh·rahyzd AK·sehs
"She explained Newton's laws of motion to the students."
shee uhk·SPLAYND NOO·duhnz LAHZ uhv MOH·shuhn tuh dhuh STOO·duhnts
"She studied astrophysics to understand the laws of the universe."
shee STUH·deed as·troh·FIH·zuhks tuh uhn·der·STAND dhuh LAHZ uhv dhuh YOO·nuh·vurs
"The police enforce traffic laws to ensure public safety."
dhuh puh·LEES uhn·FORS TRA·fuhk LAHZ tuh uhn·SHUUR PUH·bluhk SAYF·tee
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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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

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