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 follows in American English
FAH·lohz
Start here
Americans pronounce follows as FAH-lohz (/ˈfɑloʊz/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "She follows a strict diet plan to support her training" or "She follows the results of the tennis grand slams closely" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "follows" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "follows".
2 syllables, 5 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.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "follows" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He follows strict safety protocols while working in the lab."
hee FAH·lohz STRIHKT SAYF·tee PROH·duh·kahlz WAHYL WUR·kuhng uhn dhuh LAB
"She follows a strict diet plan to support her training."
shee FAH·lohz uh STRIHKT DAHY·uht PLAN tuh suh·PORT her TRAY·nuhng
"She follows the results of the tennis grand slams closely."
shee FAH·lohz dhuh ruh·ZUHLTS uhv dhuh TEH·nuhs GRAND SLAMZ KLOH·slee
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
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·LOHZ→FAH·lohz
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "follows" 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-lohz" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Is the American pronunciation of "follows" 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-lohz" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "follows". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.