A short, relaxed vowel. The mouth is half open, the tongue is in the centre, and the lips are neutral. It sounds like a quick “uh”.
Hear it: /ʌ/ · in a word: cup
How to make it
- Relax your whole mouth: this is a lazy sound.
- Open slightly more than for /ʊ/, but do not round your lips.
- Do not say “o”: love is not “lov” with a round /o/.
Spellings
| Spelling | Examples |
|---|---|
| u | cup, bus, sun, run, duck |
| o | love, money, come, some, mother |
| ou | young, country, touch |
| oo | blood, flood |
Compare with /ɒ/
For /ɒ/ round your lips and drop your jaw. For /ʌ/ keep your mouth relaxed and your lips neutral.
| /ʌ/ | /ɒ/ |
|---|---|
| cup /ʌ/ | cop /ɒ/ |
| luck /ʌ/ | lock /ɒ/ |
| cut /ʌ/ | cot /ɒ/ |
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: cup, bus, love, money, come, mother, young, touch, hot, dog, lot, watch, stop, want, box, shop. /ʌ/ as in cup; /ɒ/ as in hot.
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.