/toʊlz/
tolls is pronounced /toʊlz/. Tolls (plural noun or verb form) refers to fees charged for use of roads, bridges, or services; or the act of collecting such fees. It can also mean the sound of a bell, especially a ringing long and sonorous. In many contexts it denotes a monetary charge or the action of ringing a bell for a funeral or timekeeping. The word emphasizes the cost or the act of ringing in a formal, sometimes ceremonial sense.
Say it backTolls (plural noun or verb form) refers to fees charged for use of roads, bridges, or services; or the act of collecting such fees. It can also mean the sound of a bell, especially a ringing long and sonorous. In many contexts it denotes a monetary charge or the action of ringing a bell for a funeral or timekeeping. The word emphasizes the cost or the act of ringing in a formal, sometimes ceremonial sense.
- You often mispronounce the diphthong: aim for /oʊ/ instead of a pure /o/ or /oː/. Adjust by practicing ‘go’ to ‘toll’ transition. • - L- to Z transition: Don’t shorten the /z/; keep it voiced and audible. Use voice onset time to ensure immediate voicing after /l/. • - Final sibilant confusion: Avoid replacing /z/ with /s/ in rapid speech; keep vocal cord vibration, even if the following word starts with a consonant. - Focus on minimal-pair drills: tolls vs. toll, tolls vs. tolls’ (possessive) to feel differences in stress and voicing.
"The city raised tolls on the bridge to fund maintenance."
"Farmers tolls the bells at dawn to mark the start of the day.”"
"We paid several tolls on our highway trip."
Pronounce as /toʊlz/ in US and UK; the initial sound is the long 'o' as in 'go', followed by a voiceless lateral 'l' and a voiced 'z' ending. Mouth position: lips rounded for the /oʊ/ glide, teeth lightly touching to create /l/, then a light voicing for /z/. Stress is on the single syllable, which is typical for simple plural nouns. For reference, you can listen to examples on Forvo or YouGlish by searching “tolls.”
Common errors include pronouncing the final /z/ as /s/ (tolls sounds like 'tolz' instead of 'tolls'); and misproducing the vowel as /aʊ/ or a short /o/ instead of the long /oʊ/. Another slip is a tense or clipped ending with no voicing; ensure your vocal cords buzz for the /z/. Keep the tongue at a relaxed neutral position for the /l/ and transition smoothly to the /z/ voicing. Practice with minimal pairs like tolls–tolls (singular) to feel the final voiced sound.
In US and UK accents, the vowel remains a long /oʊ/ with a clear /l/ and a voiced /z/. Australian English often features a slightly more centralized starting vowel and may show a marginally shorter /oː/ quality, but the /l/ and /z/ are typically the same. The rhotic or non-rhotic nature does not affect this word; the /z/ ending remains voiced. Overall, the biggest regional variation is vowel quality in the onset, but the core 'toʊlz' remains consistent.
The difficulty lies in producing a clean, voiced final /z/ after an /l/ fricative sequence: the transition from the liquid /l/ to the voiced /z/ requires precise voicing and timing. Some learners merge /z/ with /s/ or drop voicing. Additionally, the diphthong /oʊ/ can be challenging for speakers with a more monophthongal vowel inventory. Focus on a smooth glide from /oʊ/ into a fully voiced /z/, with a relaxed jaw and controlled air pressure to avoid a hissing /s/ substitute.
A unique aspect is the exact combination of a long mid-back diphthong /oʊ/ followed by a voiced alveolar fricative /z/. Unlike plural sibilants or unvoiced endings, tolls carries steady voicing in the final consonant. You’ll want to ensure the /z/ is clearly voiced, not devoiced at the end of the word, which can happen if the following sound begins with a voiceless consonant in connected speech.
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- US: Maintain rhoticity, keep /oʊ/ quality with slight opening, ensure the /l/ is light but not overly dark. - UK: Slightly more rounded /oʊ/ and a crisper /l/ with a subtle length in the vowel; keep the final /z/ fully voiced. - AU: More centralized onset vowel for /oʊ/; place emphasis on the /z/ clarity due to lack of devoicing in casual speech. - IPA references: US /toʊlz/, UK /təʊlz/, AU /təʊlz/. - Tips: practice with tongue-tip contact at alveolar ridge for /l/ and ensure your teeth meet lightly for the /z/ to avoid it turning into /s/.
Tolls comes from the verb toll, from Old English tolian 'to pay, to allow to pass' (related to toll, task, or tax). The noun toll meaning a charge or levy emerged from the sense of payment required to pass a barrier or gate, tracing to Proto-Germanic *tol-, which conveys ‘to pay, to reckon.’ Early medieval law codes and road systems used tolls as a formal mechanism to fund infrastructure. The bell sense derives from the verb toll in Anglo-Norman French toller, meaning ‘to ring,’ associated with the bell’s prolonged sound. Over time, tolls as charges and the bell sense coexisted, with medieval towns using bell tolls both as ceremonial signals and practical timing devices. The modern plural form tolls often appears in financial contexts (road tolls) and in heraldic or ceremonial bell ringing, but remains the same spelling as the verb’s present third-person singular form. First known uses of tolls as fees appear in charters and municipal records of the 12th–13th centuries, while bell tolls have earlier roots in liturgical and community timekeeping traditions. The evolution reflects the broad metaphor of tolling: to reckon, to ring, to levy, all carried by a common Proto-Germanic core meaning ‘to count or pay.’
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "tolls" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "tolls"
-lls sounds
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