f/f/
Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.
How to pronounce follow in American English
FAH·loh
Start here
Americans pronounce follow as FAH-loh (/ˈfɑloʊ/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The law is not always so easy to follow" or "Please follow the new procedure carefully" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "follow".
2 syllables, 4 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
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.
In real conversation
Hear "follow" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He scheduled a follow-up appointment for next month."
hee SKEH·juhld uh FAH·loh UHP uh·POYNT·muhnt fer NEHKST muhnth
"I am writing to follow up on our previous conversation."
ahy uhm RAHY·duhng tuh FAH·loh UHP ahn ar PREE·vee·uhs kahn·ver·SAY·shuhn
"Please follow the new procedure carefully."
PLEEZ FAH·loh dhuh noo pruh·SEE·jer KAIR·fuh·lee
"The law is not always so easy to follow."
dhuh LAH ihz NAHT AHL·wayz SOH EE·zee tuh FAH·loh
"The reference list must follow the specified citation format."
dhuh REH·fruhns LIHST muhst FAH·loh dhuh SPEH·suh·fahyd sahy·TAY·shuhn FOR·mat
"The sunflower turns its head to follow the sun across the sky."
dhuh SUHN·flow·er TURNZ ihts HEHD tuh FAH·loh dhuh SUHN uh·KRAHS dhuh SKAHY
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch FAH — keep everything else short and quick.
fah·LOH→FAH·loh
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "follow" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "FAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "FAH-loh" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "follow" 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 "FAH-loh" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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