One syllable: House.
hows
/haʊs/
House is pronounced hows (/haʊs/). It has one syllable (House), with the stress on "House". House is a noun referring to a building or structure used for human habitation. It can also denote a political or organizational group, or a household unit. The word emphasizes a concrete, enclosed space and is common in everyday speech and written text, functioning as a fundamental lexical item in describing residence, shelter, and domestic contexts.
nounHouse is a noun referring to a building or structure used for human habitation. It can also denote a political or organizational group, or a household unit. The word emphasizes a concrete, enclosed space and is common in everyday speech and written text, functioning as a fundamental lexical item in describing residence, shelter, and domestic contexts.
"We bought a new house in the countryside."
"The house will need some repairs before winter."
"She opened the door and stepped into the warm kitchen of the house."
Pronounce it as /haʊs/ with a single syllable. Start with the /h/ breath, move into the diphthong /aʊ/ as in 'how,' then end with /s/ as in 'son.' Keep the /s/ voiceless and crisp. In careful speech, your mouth shows a slight /a/ transition before the /ʊ/ retreat, but in everyday speech it blends into /aʊ/ quickly. Audio references: Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries provide clear IPA and pronunciation clips you can listen to for US, UK, and AU accents.
Two common errors are treating /haʊ/ as a pure long /a/ or mispronouncing the final /s/ as /z/ in connected speech. To correct: ensure the vowel is the /aʊ/ diphthong (mouth starts open, then closes toward a high back position), and maintain a voiceless, crisp /s/. Don’t insert a stop between /a/ and /ʊ/. In careful speech, avoid lengthening the vowel; keep it one quick diphthong before the /s/.
In US and AU accents, /haʊs/ is rhotic and the /h/ is aspirated; the /aʊ/ diphthong moves from /a/ to /ʊ/ smoothly. In many UK accents, the /h/ remains, but the /aʊ/ diphthong can be a slightly more centralized or tighter vowel, with subtle timing differences in connected speech. The final /s/ is unvoiced in all. Overall, stress remains on the single syllable, but vowel quality and consonant elision may vary with speech rate and regional variation.
Because of the short, high-velocity /h/ followed by a strong /aʊ/ diphthong that glides into a crisp /s/. The challenge lies in producing a clean, unvoiced /s/ after a relatively long vowel sound without letting the vowel become tense or overly shortened in fast speech. Learners also risk sounding like ‘howse’ or ‘house’ with a vowel too lax. Focus on a steady mouth opening to begin the /aʊ/, then snap the /s/ sharply.
The key is the single-syllable, tight transition from the /aʊ/ diphthong to /s/ without a pause. Visualize moving from a wider jaw opening to a quick, controlled end posture and a shortlived sibilant. For ESL learners with strong L2 influence, emphasize the h-aspiration at the start and the voiceless /s/ to prevent voicing that can blur the final consonant. IPA guidance: /haʊs/.
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House comes from the Old English hus (dwelling, shelter, housing) and is related to the Proto-Germanic husamiz, with cognates in several Germanic languages. The word originally conveyed a physical shelter or dwelling and later extended to a space containing a family or household. In Middle English, house referred to a building or the family who lived there, and by the early modern period it also carried figurative senses such as “house of government” or “house of cards.” The term’s semantic field broadened with urban development and architectural innovation, maintaining its core sense of a protected, enclosed space for people. The pronunciation shifted slightly over centuries but has remained relatively stable in Modern English, with consistent /haʊs/ across varieties; the vowel sound corresponds to the English diphthong in words like how and now, but is shorter and more centralized in rapid speech. The word’s ubiquity ensured its persistence in everyday language, law, real estate, and literature as a basic referent for domestic space and shelter.
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Words that rhyme with "House"
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