Michigan: I’ve owned two houzes. The neighbor houzes his pet pelican in a cage.
HOWS-iss,
raised in Southern Alabama
reside in Atlanta
My out-of-context answer was “housez”, with the first S unvoiced, but on reading over other answers, I realize that there are contexts where I’d voice both (including using it as a verb).
Born and raised Northeast Ohio, but currently in Montana, and with a lot of family from Appalachian Pennsylvania. I can’t tell any difference between the accent of my birth and Montanan, but I can tell either of them from Appalachian (though Appalachian still sounds “normal”).
Houzes in all situations.
I’m mostly midwestern – grew up in St. Louis, spent significant time in KC and Cincy (New York, too, though).
I would say that when pluralized, the ‘s’ mutates into a ‘z’.
Me too.
The “official” as explaind to me by ESL colleague is that the regular E plural is formed by adding “s” to a word ending in an unvoiced non-sibilant consonant, “z” to a voiced non-sibilant consonant, and “ez” to everything else. He was also taught that “house/houzez” was an exception. So I surprised him by saying that for me it is “houses”. I am originally from Philadelphia and have read that that is standard there. I have lived outside of Philly so long that I say one or the other willy-nilly. Even more interesting is the fact that I never hear the difference. They are totally interchangeable for me. Unlike, say, the vowels in “sad” and “bad” which are sharply different for me and anyone from Philly. From this I infer that there must be a lot of Piladelphians who say “houzes”.
Californian. I say “houzez,” but I also say “spousez” with an unvoiced s.
I’m not sure whether I say “blousez” or “blouzez”…they both sound right to me.
Since this is a poll, it’s better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
S sound. Grew up in southeastern PA, now live in Central FL.
How-ziz
Western Canada
Verb is definitely HOWziz. I think the plural is HOWSiz, but both sound right to me.
Strangely, I’ve been saying houses in sentences and if I say something like, “There must have been a hundred people there, milling around all the houses” it becomes something like HOWziss.
Appalachian Ohio, where the only thing weirder than the people is the accent.
Houzez. I’ve been raised in Washington state by midwestern parents.
how-zez in all of its forms
West and Middle Tennessee
Howzez, no exceptions.
Sydney, Australia.
Noun: howsez
Verb: howzez
NE Ohio
Noun, sing.: howss
Noun, plural: howzez
Verb: howz
Raised in Miami, Fl.
Plural noun: HOWZ-ez
Verb: Also HOWZ-ez
Possessive: HOUS-ez (more like a short u sound followed by a w, as opposed to the first two, in which the “OW” is closer to an “ah” modified by a w)
People whose last name is House: Also HOUS-ez
I was born and raised in the Cleveland area (Ohio), and currently live in Indiana.
HOUSS-ez.
Native of central Pennsylvania, but with a father from Georgia and various other factors, I don’t think I have a typical central PA accent.
I did a minor poll and found that everyone here in my office says HOUS-iz with the possible exception of one person who wasn’t sure.