How to pronounce the Short U sound /ʌ/
/ʌ/ is a short vowel made with the tongue central, mid. Let your whole mouth go slack — lips neutral, tongue flat in the middle. Open the jaw a little.
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How to make it
- 1Let your whole mouth go slack — lips neutral, tongue flat in the middle.
- 2Open the jaw a little.
- 3Make a short, punchy 'uh' with the voice on.
- 4It is the stressed cousin of the schwa: same relaxed shape, but it carries the beat of the word.
- Lips
- Completely neutral — no spreading, no rounding.
- Tongue
- Central and mid, doing almost nothing.
- Jaw
- Open about half a finger's width.
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
My brother's young son loves running up the country road.
Another hundred cups of coffee was enough.
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 central vowel close to this one, so it transfers reasonably well; the trap is the spelling, since English writes it as u, o, ou and oo.
- Mandarin
Mandarin has a central vowel close to this one, so it transfers reasonably well; the English spelling is the harder part.
- Japanese
Japanese has one a, so 'cup' is produced as 'cap' unless the tongue pulls back to the centre.
- Korean
Korean has a mid back unrounded vowel close to this one, so it transfers reasonably well.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has a short central vowel close to this one, so it transfers well.
- Spanish
Spanish has no central mid vowel, so 'cut' is usually produced with a and merges with 'cat' or 'cart'.
- French
French has no unrounded central mid vowel, so its rounded eu often stands in and 'love' can sound rounded.
- German
German has no exact match, so a or the rounded ö substitutes and 'cup' shifts.
- Italian
Italian has no central vowel, so 'bud' and 'bad' converge on a.
- Russian
Russian's unstressed a is close to this vowel, so the sound is available, though it is associated with weak syllables rather than stressed ones.
- Arabic
Arabic has no central mid vowel, so short a or u substitutes and 'cut' can sound like 'cat' or 'coot'.
- Turkish
Turkish has a high back unrounded vowel that is close in colour but higher, so 'cup' can tighten.
Straight answers
Is /ʌ/ 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 Short U sound?
Common ones include up, under, onion. In the middle of a word you get cup, love, money. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /ʌ/ spelled in English?
It is written "u", "o", "ou", "oo", "oe". 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 /ʌ/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a central vowel close to this one, so it transfers reasonably well; the trap is the spelling, since English writes it as u, o, ou and oo.
Record the Short U sound and see if it landed
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