How to pronounce pounds in American English

IPA /paʊndz/ Syllables 1 · powndz Stress 1st syllable

POWNDZ

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Americans pronounce pounds as POWNDZ (/paʊndz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The package weighs sixteen pounds".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "pounds".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

p/p/

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

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.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

d/d/

Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "pounds" in the wild.

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

"The package weighs sixteen pounds."

dhuh PA·kuhj WAYZ sihk·STEEN POWNDZ

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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