‘Choose’ rhymes with ‘lose’? I mean c’mon, someone did that shit on purpose 👀
I don’t know that they sound that different, but I definitely “pronounce” them differently in that my tongue is in a different party of my mouth for both of them. When I say clothes, my tongue is near touching my front teeth, where as close is more just below that ridge behind my teeth, so farther back.
I’m from the center of the U.S. for reference.
I had half my jaw ripped open when I was 16 or so. So I guess I’m lucky to pronounce or enunciate anything correctly these days.
Southern Mississippi, if that means squat.