How to pronounce slow in American English

IPA /sloʊ/ Syllables 1 · sloh Stress 1st syllable

SLOH

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Americans pronounce slow as SLOH (/sloʊ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "My computer is running a bit slow again" or "We were wondering why the van was so slow" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "slow".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No 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.

In real conversation

Hear "slow" in the wild.

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

"He criticized the film for its slow pacing and lack of character development."

hee KRIH·duh·sahyzd dhuh FIHLM fer ihts SLOH PAY·suhng and LAK uhv KEH·ruhk·ter duh·VEH·luhp·muhnt

"My computer is running a bit slow again."

mahy kuhm·PYOO·der ihz RUH·nuhng uh BIHT SLOH uh·GEHN

"My computer seems to be running a bit slow."

mahy kuhm·PYOO·der SEEMZ tuh bee RUH·nuhng uh BIHT SLOH

"The food was good but the service was slow."

dhuh FOOD wuhz GUUD buht dhuh SUR·vuhs wuhz SLOH

"We were wondering why the van was so slow."

wee wer WUHN·der·uhng wahy dhuh VAN wuhz SOH SLOH

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Questions

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