How to pronounce flies in American English

IPA /flaɪz/ Syllables 1 · flahyz Stress 1st syllable

FLAHYZ

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Americans pronounce flies as FLAHYZ (/flaɪz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Time really flies when you are having a good time, doesn't it?".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "flies".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

l/l/

Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.

ahy/aɪ/

Start with your jaw open wide and your tongue resting low and flat. Glide the front of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth as your jaw closes halfway.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "flies" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Time really flies when you are having a good time, doesn't it?"

TAHYM RIH·lee FLAHYZ wehn yoo er HA·vuhng uh GUUD TAHYM DUH·zuhnt iht

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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