PHONETICS: /ʊ/

In British English, the phonetic symbol  /ʊ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "put", "pull" and "could". It is called a short vowel. 

• with "o" or "oo": book - cook - foot - good - hook - look - shook - took - wool - wolf - whoops! - woman;
• with "ou": could - would - should;
• with "u": bull - bullet - bush - cushion - pull - push - put;
• homophones: wood/would.

While /ʊ/ is very similar to the Spanish letter "u", it is actually much shorter, and some Spanish speakers may, at first, have difficulty distinguishing between the vowel sound in "good" and that of /u:/, as in "food", which is longer than the Spanish "u".

Written by Victoria Overton

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.