A short vowel with lightly rounded lips. The tongue is high and back, but the sound is relaxed, not tight. It is shorter and looser than the long /uː/ of food.
Hear it: /ʊ/ · in a word: book
How to make it
- Round your lips only a little.
- Keep it very short: book is not “boooook”.
- Do not push your lips forward as for /uː/.
Spellings
| Spelling | Examples |
|---|---|
| oo | book, good, foot, look |
| u | full, pull, put, push |
| ou | could, would, should |
| o | woman, wolf |
Compare with /uː/
For /uː/ push your lips forward into a small circle and hold it.
| /ʊ/ | /uː/ |
|---|---|
| full /ʊ/ | fool /uː/ |
| pull /ʊ/ | pool /uː/ |
| foot /ʊ/ | food /uː/ |
Practice
Drag each word to the vowel it has. On a phone, press and hold a word to drag it, or tap a word and then tap a box. Spelling can mislead you.
Words to sort: book, good, foot, look, full, push, could, woman, food, moon, blue, soup, shoe, fruit, group, true. /ʊ/ as in book; /uː/ as in food.
Think about the sound, not the spelling. British pronunciation.
Press 🔊, listen, and choose what you heard. Press it again to hear it again. Each time you start, the sounds are different.
Press 🔊 to hear each sentence. There is no text: drag the word you hear into the gap. The bank has words that do not belong, so listen carefully. On a phone, press and hold a word to drag it, or tap a word and then tap the gap.
Press 🔊 to hear each sentence. There is no text: drag the word you hear into the gap. The bank has words that do not belong, so listen carefully. On a phone, press and hold a word to drag it, or tap a word and then tap the gap.