folk
noun and adjective · people; traditional music and culture of ordinary people
- FOHKfoʊk (stressed)
- FOHKfəʊk (stressed)
- US /foʊk/FOHK Recorded voice
- UK /fəʊk/FOHK Your device’s voice
How to pronounce folk
Folk is pronounced FOHK, rhyming with joke. It is one syllable with the vowel in go, and the L is silent in both American and British English. Folks is FOHKS.
- 1 syllable
- Stress on FOHK
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Folk, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/foʊk/
FOHKstressed
- /f/as in fall
- /oʊ/as in go (US)
- /k/as in cat
UK British English/fəʊk/
FOHKstressed
- /f/as in fall
- /əʊ/as in go (UK)
- /k/as in cat
Say folk yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes folk, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. One syllable with the oh of go. The L is silent: FOHK.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
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Common folk pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say FOHK.
Not
FOLKSaying the L and the short o of hot. Use the long oh in go and drop the L.
Not
FOHLKKeeping the L. It is silent in standard American and British English.
Not
FAWKUsing the aw of law. That is close to how British speakers say fork. Folk has the vowel of go.
Folk in a sentence
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
She sings old Irish folk songs.
The folk in this village are very friendly.
We danced to folk music all night.
Is the l in folk pronounced?
No. In folk and yolk, the L is written but not said, and the O is the long oh in go. The word is native English: Old English had folc, and the same word lives on in German Volk and Swedish folk.
Some Americans do put an L in, but dictionaries treat FOHK as the standard form. Words like talk, walk and chalk also lose their L before K, though their vowel is different.
Think of folk as rhyming with joke and smoke, and you will not be tempted to say the L.
Words that sound like folk
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
Say words like folk out loud with Slova
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.