How to pronounce loose in American English

IPA /lus/ Syllables 1 · loos Stress 1st syllable

LOOS

Start here

Americans pronounce loose as LOOS (/lus/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Her new shoes were too loose to use" or "He pulled a loose tooth this afternoon" — more examples below.

Now you try.

Record yourself saying "loose" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.

Ready when you are

Tap the mic to start

Preview your accent profile

Get your accent profile and 5-axes assessment.

Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Unlock the full report in the app

Sound by sound

Every sound in "loose".

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.

oo/u/

Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.

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 "loose" in the wild.

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

"He pulled a loose tooth this afternoon."

hee PUULD uh LOOS TOOTH dhihs af·ter·NOON

"Move the loose tool to the new room soon."

MOOV dhuh LOOS TOOL tuh dhuh noo ROOM SOON

"Her new shoes were too loose to use."

her noo SHOOZ wer TOO LOOS tuh YOOZ

Find another

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Search the entire library

Press / anywhere to focus the search box.

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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