How to pronounce flows in American English

IPA /floʊz/ Syllables 1 · flohz Stress 1st syllable

FLOHZ

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Americans pronounce flows as FLOHZ (/floʊz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The river flows freely through the valley" or "The river flows through the valley to the sea" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "flows".

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.

oh/oʊ/

Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.

z/z/

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

In real conversation

Hear "flows" in the wild.

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

"The river flows freely through the valley."

dhuh RIH·ver FLOHZ FREE·lee throo dhuh VA·lee

"The river flows through the valley to the sea."

dhuh RIH·ver FLOHZ throo dhuh VA·lee tuh dhuh SEE

"We need to ensure that information flows freely between all stakeholders."

wee NEED tuh ehn·SHUUR dhuht ihn·fer·MAY·shuhn FLOHZ FREE·lee buh·TWEEN AHL STAYK·hohl·derz

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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