How to pronounce the Long OO sound /uː/
/uː/ is a long vowel made with the tongue back, high, rounded. Push your lips forward and round them tightly, as if whistling. Pull the back of your tongue up and back.
- Free
- No card
- Scored in your browser
How to make it
- 1Push your lips forward and round them tightly, as if whistling.
- 2Pull the back of your tongue up and back.
- 3Turn the voice on and hold the sound — it is long and tense.
- 4Keep the ring of the lips steady to the end; letting it slacken gives you the short OO of 'book'.
- Lips
- Pushed forward and tightly rounded into a small ring.
- Tongue
- Back and high.
- Jaw
- Nearly closed.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
The blue shoes at school were too loose.
Sue moved the food into the new room in June.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have a long u very close to this vowel, so it transfers well.
- Mandarin
Mandarin u is close to this vowel, so it transfers well; Mandarin also has a rounded front u that can substitute after certain consonants.
- Japanese
Japanese u is unrounded, so 'food' can sound flat; English needs the lips pushed forward into a ring.
- Korean
Korean has a rounded high back vowel close to this one, so it transfers well.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has a close back rounded vowel, so this one transfers well.
- Thai
Thai has both short and long u, so length and quality both transfer well.
- Spanish
Spanish u is close to this vowel, so it is one of the easier ones; the trouble is that it also absorbs the short OO of 'book'.
- French
French ou matches this vowel closely; the catch is that French also has a rounded front u, which can appear in English 'new' and 'tune'.
- German
German long u matches closely, so it transfers well.
- Russian
Russian u is close, so it transfers well; it is the short English one that is harder.
- Arabic
Arabic long u is close to this vowel, so it transfers well.
- Turkish
Turkish u is close, and Turkish also has a front rounded u that can slip into English words spelled with u.
Straight answers
Is /uː/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. All English vowels are voiced, so the question only really separates the consonants.
What words start with the Long OO sound?
Common ones include ooze. In the middle of a word you get food, school, June, and at the end blue, two, shoe. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /uː/ spelled in English?
It is written "oo", "u", "ue", "ew", "ou", "o", "ui", "o_e". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /uː/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a long u very close to this vowel, so it transfers well.
Record the Long OO sound and see if it landed
sayit lines up every sound you made against the sound you meant, in IPA, and marks the ones a listener would miss. Free, private, in your browser.