h/h/
Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.
How to pronounce holes in American English
HOHLZ
Start here
Americans pronounce holes as HOHLZ (/hoʊlz/). The L in "holes" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, and it's one of the defining features of casual American English. It comes out as HOHLZ. You'll hear it in sentences like "The hungry hunter dug a dozen holes in the dust" or "He patched the holes in the wall with spackling compound" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "holes" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "holes".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
z/z/
Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.
In real conversation
Hear "holes" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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
Treating every L the same.
The L in "holes" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
holes→HOHLZ
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "holes" 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 "HOHLZ" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "holes". 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.