A long vowel. The lips are rounded tightly and pushed forward, and the tongue is high and back. Hold it, and keep the lips still.
Hear it: /uː/ · in a word: food
How to make it
- Make a small, tight circle with your lips.
- Hold it about twice as long as /ʊ/.
- Do not let your lips move while you hold it.
Spellings
| Spelling | Examples |
|---|---|
| oo | food, moon, school, too |
| ue | blue, true, clue, glue |
| ew | grew, drew, chew |
| u_e | June, rule, flute |
| ou / ui | soup, group, fruit, juice |
| o | do, who, lose |
Compare with /ʊ/
Round and push the lips for /uː/; relax them for /ʊ/.
| /uː/ | /ʊ/ |
|---|---|
| fool /uː/ | full /ʊ/ |
| pool /uː/ | pull /ʊ/ |
| food /uː/ | foot /ʊ/ |
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: food, school, blue, true, grew, rule, soup, fruit, book, good, foot, full, put, could, woman, wolf. /uː/ as in food; /ʊ/ as in book.
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.