How to pronounce slow in American English
SLOH
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Americans pronounce slow as SLOH (/sloʊ/).
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Why it sounds different
Why "slow" sounds like SLOH.
Between "" and "", a brief "" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow. This is called the Vowel-to-Vowel Linking, what turns word-by-word reading into actual conversation. It comes out as SLOH.
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
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
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.
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