How to pronounce low in American English

IPA /loʊ/ Syllables 1 · loh Stress 1st syllable

LOH

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Americans pronounce low as LOH (/loʊ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The sauce needs to simmer on low heat for thirty minutes" or "She invested in index funds for their low fees and diversification" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "low".

1 syllable, 2 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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 "low" in the wild.

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

"She invested in index funds for their low fees and diversification."

shee ihn·VEH·stuhd uhn IHN·dehks FUHNDZ fer dher LOH FEEZ and duh·vur·suh·fuh·KAY·shuhn

"The sauce needs to simmer on low heat for thirty minutes."

dhuh SAHS NEEDZ tuh SIH·mer ahn LOH HEET fer THUR·dee MIH·nuhts

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Questions

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