Our next sound is /u:/. This is found in words such as shoot, food, to, too, two and rude. Listen to them one by one on Google Translate or another website where you can hear English words being spoken in a ‘British’ accent.
Now listen to the words we looked at yesterday, containing the / ʊ / sound:
good, should, could, would and pudding
Can you hear a difference? Often, English learners mix up these vowel sounds, so it’s good to be aware of the difference between the two. The /u:/ sound is long, whereas the / ʊ / sound is short, and the lips make different shapes - your lips will feel tighter and rounder when making the / u: / but slightly looser, with more room between your lips when making the / ʊ / sound. It may help to practise these in a mirror!
These images are from BBC Learning English – The Sounds of English, on YouTube. Both videos are worth watching if you’re finding it difficult to hear or reproduce these two sounds:
English Pronunciation – Short Vowel - /ʊ/ - ‘foot’, ‘put’ & ‘good’ - YouTube and
English Pronunciation – Long Vowel - /uː/ - 'blue’, ‘two’ & ‘goose’ - YouTube
In any case, they may need practise!
Do you have difficulty hearing the difference or making the right mouth shapes? Or any other comments?
Incidentally, if you use another website for listening to English words, or if you’ve found a website where you can listen to a sound and an example of a word containing that sound, please let us know in the comments box below! I would be interested, and I’m sure other language learners would love to know too. There is definitely more to life than Google!😊
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