wood vs wooed: hear and say the difference
wood and wooed are identical except for one sound: wood has the short oo, /ʊ/, and wooed has the long oo, /uː/. Long OO pushes the lips forward into a tight ring and holds it; short OO keeps the rounding loose and lets go almost immediately.
The two words
The difference
What actually changes
Long OO pushes the lips forward into a tight ring and holds it; short OO keeps the rounding loose and lets go almost immediately.wood — /ʊ/
- Lips
- Loosely rounded — nothing like the tight ring of long OO.
- Tongue
- Back, high but relaxed.
- Jaw
- Nearly closed.
wooed — /uː/
- Lips
- Pushed forward and tightly rounded into a small ring.
- Tongue
- Back and high.
- Jaw
- Nearly closed.
Each word in a sentence
wood
The table is made of solid wood.
wooed
He wooed her with old songs.
Why this pair is hard
Spanish, Italian, French, Mandarin, Russian and Turkish have one tense u, so 'full' and 'fool' merge. Japanese u is unrounded, so both sides can sound thin. Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and German have a short lax u, which makes this one of their easier contrasts.
Straight answers
What is the difference between "wood" and "wooed"?
One sound. wood is /wʊd/ and wooed is /wuːd/ — everything else in the two words is identical, so that single contrast carries the whole meaning. Long OO pushes the lips forward into a tight ring and holds it; short OO keeps the rounding loose and lets go almost immediately.
Why do I say "wood" and "wooed" the same way?
Spanish, Italian, French, Mandarin, Russian and Turkish have one tense u, so 'full' and 'fool' merge. Japanese u is unrounded, so both sides can sound thin. Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and German have a short lax u, which makes this one of their easier contrasts.
Should I train my ear or my mouth first?
Your ear. If you cannot reliably hear which word was said, your mouth has no target to aim at, and drilling produces a sound you cannot check. Run the listening test on this page until you are scoring four or five out of five, then record the pair.
Say "wood" and "wooed" and see which one you said
One take covers both words: reference mode aligns each sound against its target, so the contrast comes back scored on both sides. Free, private, in your browser.