Speaker A
How many ways can you say the letter U?
Learn 16 different pronunciations of the letter U with clear examples and practice sentences to improve your English pronunciation.
Key Takeaways
- The letter U has multiple pronunciations that depend on word spelling and context.
- Exceptions and irregular pronunciations are common and important to recognize.
- Practice with example words and sentences is essential for mastering U sounds.
- Understanding spelling patterns like OU, UE, UR helps predict pronunciation.
- Regional accents and pronunciation variations affect how U sounds are spoken.
What the video covers
- The video explores 16 distinct ways to pronounce the letter U in English.
- It covers common sounds like the short 'a' sound (as in sun) and the long 'u' sound (as in unicorn).
- The instructor explains exceptions and irregularities in pronunciation with examples.
- Practice words and sentences are provided for each pronunciation to aid learning.
- Different spellings affecting the U sound, such as OU, UE, UR, and silent U, are discussed.
- Special attention is given to tricky words and regional variations, including Received Pronunciation.
- The video highlights how certain endings like -tion and -sion affect the U sound.
- It addresses rare and less common pronunciations like the 'thong' sound in pure and the 'er' sound in nurse.
- The video also explains how some words have silent U or silent letters affecting pronunciation.
- Overall, the video aims to improve understanding and pronunciation of all U vowel sounds in English.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Well, I've found 16 and there are probably more.
Speaker A
That's unbelievable and very confusing.
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So if you want to improve your pronunciation and understand all the sounds with the letter U, come this way.
Speaker A
The first way to pronounce the letter U is the sound a, as in the word sun.
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Let me show you how to say it.
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It's really easy.
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First of all, say the schwa sound, uh, mouth, tongue, and jaw all relaxed.
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Say, uh.
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Now open your mouth a little wider and say, a, a, uh, a, a.
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It's as simple as that.
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Now say the word plum, not plum, plum.
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Now, this a sound is very common in three-letter words.
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Repeat after me.
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Fun, run, mud, cup, but.
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And as always, there's an exception.
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And it's the word put with the u sound, as in the word foot.
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The sound a is also common before double consonants.
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Try saying these words.
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Butter, dull, skull, puddle, funny.
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But again, watch out for exceptions with the short u sound like bull, full, pull, and pudding.
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Just to check you've got that, try saying these.
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Dull, pull, skull, full, puddle, pudding.
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Now let's practice these words with the a sound.
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Repeat after me.
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Uncle, bug, hut, sung, much, truck.
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And these with an O U spelling, young, trouble.
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Now a short sentence for you to practice the a sound.
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You ready? "Under the sun, when we were young, we cut open a coconut, having fun and telling funny tales."
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Now you say it.
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Under the sun,
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when we were young,
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we cut open a coconut,
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having fun
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and telling funny tales.
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Well done.
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Now for the next way that the letter U is pronounced, it's the u sound.
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As in the word bull.
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Yeah, it's not very common.
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Now try these practice words.
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Repeat after me.
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Put, push, bush, pull, full, bully, sugar.
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And here are some you probably already know with an O U spelling.
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Notice the silent Ls.
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Would, could, should.
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Now a short sentence for you to practice the u sound.
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Ready?
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Like a bully, he would push and pull the bull out of the bush as hard as he could.
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Now you say it.
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Like a bully,
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he would push and pull the bull
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out of the bush
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as hard as he could.
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Great.
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The next way the letter U is pronounced is the long sound, U, as in the word unicorn.
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It's also the pronunciation of the letter U.
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For this sound, we sometimes just need the letter U in a word.
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Like these words.
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Repeat after me.
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Human, music, student, unit, duty.
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Now try these words that have the letter E after a following consonant.
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Cube, huge, consume, confuse, computer, perfume, reduce, mute, cute.
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However, beware of two exceptions here.
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The first is minute, when the word is referring to time, the U sound sounds like i, minute.
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If we say minute with the U sound, it means something completely different.
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It means very, very small, minute.
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The other exception is the word lettuce.
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You know, that veggie we have with our salad, don't say lettuce.
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Because we won't understand you.
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I'd like a lettuce and tomato sandwich, please.
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It's lettuce.
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Now, let's move on to the word endings with spellings, bution, cution, tution, fusion.
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The sound for these endings is U plus shun for T I O N ending, Ushan.
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And for S I O N endings, it's Ushan.
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Say these words after me.
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Contribution, distribution, prosecution, substitution, diffusion.
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However, a special point here.
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Change the preceding consonant to an L and the U sound becomes U.
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As in conclusion, illusion, pollution, solution, revolution, evolution.
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We can also add U E on the end of words, which gives the same long U sound.
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Repeat after me.
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Cue, statue, argue, rescue, queue, barbecue, issue, and tissue.
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These last two words are very tricky for the tongue, so you will often find they're pronounced as tissue and issue, which is a lot easier.
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Of course, having said that, this is where it gets really mad.
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When you have U E at the end of words, it can have no sound at all.
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It's silent.
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Repeat after me.
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Catalogue, dialogue, tongue, cheque, unique, technique.
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And then you have the silent U at the beginning of some words.
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Repeat after me.
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Guest, guess, guard, guardian, guide, guilty.
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Now, for the letter U pronounced as the long U sound, as in the word fruit.
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Let's break the practice into different word groups.
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Starting with the words that end with an E.
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Blue, June, flute, plume, rude, rule.
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Now words with an O U spelling.
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Soup, group, wound, recoup.
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Now words with U I.
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Fruit, suit, juice, cruise.
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Now, be very careful here, as the O U spelling can also be pronounced as ow and O, but we'll look at these sounds later in the video.
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Now a short sentence for you to practice the O sound.
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Ready?
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In June, a group played a lively flute by the blue sea, their music was like a healing fruit for the mind.
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Now you say it.
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In June,
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a group played a lively flute
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by the blue sea,
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their music was like a healing fruit for the mind.
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As promised, let's now look at the letter U pronounced as the ow sound, as in the word mouse.
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Now try these practice words where O U is pronounced as the ow sound.
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Repeat after me.
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Out, round, mouth, doubt, cloud, mouse.
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Now let's practice the ow sound in a sentence.
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Repeat after me.
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A mouse, ran out, then opened his mouth, to shout at the round clouds, as they passed by.
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Now your turn.
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A mouse, ran out,
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then opened his mouth,
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to shout at the round clouds,
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as they passed by.
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Now for the letter U pronounced as the O sound.
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This is a great example of how the modern British RP accent has changed.
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You will see the O sound shown in dictionaries for the O U in words like soul.
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Mould.
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And shoulder.
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And that's how they used to be pronounced.
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But they're now more often pronounced as follows.
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Repeat after me.
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Soul, mould, shoulder, boulder.
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Now, the next way the letter U is pronounced is the long O sound, as in the word four.
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There are two sets of U spellings with the O sound, these are S U R E words and O U R words.
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First, let's practice the S U R E words.
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Repeat after me.
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Sure, unsure, insure.
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Now, please note that not all U R E words have the O sound, many have the schwa sound, and I'll explain this later in the video.
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Now for the O U R words.
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Repeat after me.
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Your, pour, tour, and four.
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There are exceptions here, and that's the words our and hour.
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Now try my practice sentence.
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Repeat after me.
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During your tour, they'll pour chocolate for sure, ensuring a great four-hour experience.
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Now your turn.
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During your tour,
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they'll pour chocolate for sure,
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ensuring a great four-hour experience.
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Now the next way the letter U is pronounced is the ort sound, as in the word naught.
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There are two sets of U spellings with the ort sound.
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O U G H T words.
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And A U G H T words.
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First, let's practice the O U G H T words.
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Repeat after me.
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Ought, brought, naught, thought.
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Now the A U G H T words.
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Caught, taught, slaughter, and daughter.
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Practice sentence time.
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His daughter was caught in deep thought about the book she had just bought.
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Now your turn.
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His daughter was caught
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in deep thought
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about the book she had just bought.
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Now for a rare one, when the letter U is pronounced as the thong sound, as in the word pure.
Speaker A
In received pronunciation, we usually say these words like this.
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Repeat after me.
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Cure, pure, secure, mature.
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However, you're very likely to hear speakers smooth out the sound to just a your sound, like this.
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Repeat after me.
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Cure, secure, pure, mature.
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Well, it's up to you how you want to pronounce these sounds.
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So, try this practice sentence with your.
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His cure secured a pure, mature outlook on life.
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Or your.
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His cure secured a pure, mature outlook on life.
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The next way the letter U is pronounced is the long vowel sound, er.
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As in the word nurse, it's like a long schwa sound, uh, er.
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There are two sets of U spellings with the er sound, U R words.
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And words ending in E U R.
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First, let's practice the U R words.
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Repeat after me.
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Burn, church, hurt, curved, purse, surge.
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Now words spelled with the E U R ending.
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This ending is less common in English than in French, from where English borrows several words with this ending.
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Here are some words that end with E U R in English, connoisseur, entrepreneur, fleur, as in fleur-de-lis, saboteur, raconteur, voyeur.
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Most of these words retain their French pronunciation or a close approximation when used in English.
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Whilst on the subject of pronouncing the letters E U R, I have to mention something that annoys me.
Speaker A
It's when people pronounce the spelling of E U R at the beginning of this word like this.
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Euro, instead of Euro.
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And Europe, instead of Europe, and European, instead of European.
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The next way the letter U is pronounced is the schwa sound, a.
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For some words that end in U R E like picture.
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Now try not to get confused here.
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As previously mentioned, the spelling U R E can have the O sound, but these U R E word endings are pronounced as a.
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It would be a good idea to learn them parrot fashion, or in other words, without thinking about why.
Speaker A
Just take my word for it.
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Here goes.
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Adventure, nature, capture, closure, exposure, feature, gesture, literature, mixture, pressure, procedure, sculpture, structure, texture, measure, pleasure.
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And there are lots, lots more.
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Of course, I've only covered one of the English vowels here.
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But if you want to know how to pronounce the others, A E I and O, go here.
Speaker A
Until next time.
Speaker A
Love and peace.
Topics:English pronunciationletter U soundsEnglish vowel soundspronunciation practiceEnglish with LizphoneticsEnglish spelling rulesReceived PronunciationEnglish exceptionsvowel variations
