US English pronunciation

How to pronounce clothes

clothes

/kloʊðz/

KLOHTHZ 1 syllable · stress on the capitals

Say “clothes”

The trap

One syllable, not two. Careful speakers say the voiced th before the z; in fast speech many simply say “close”, which is also normal.

Tip. If the th is hard, say “close” as in “close the door”: that is accepted everywhere.

More on this sound: How to pronounce TH in English (/θ/ and /ð/)

Say it in a sentence

  1. I need to buy new clothes. Practice
  2. Put your clothes in the drawer. Practice

Tono scores English against the US model and colors every word, so you can see whether clothes landed.

More words like this: hard consonant clusters

All 70 words