How to pronounce who's in American English

IPA /huz/ Syllables 1 · hooz

hooz

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Americans pronounce who's as hooz (/huz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Who's in charge of the marketing department?".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "who's".

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

h/h/

Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.

oo/u/

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

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "who's" in the wild.

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"Who's in charge of the marketing department?"

hooz ihn CHARJ uhv dhuh MAR·kuh·tuhng duh·PART·muhnt

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Questions

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