PHONETICS: /ʌ/

In British English, the phonetic symbol /ʌ/ corresponds to the monophthong vowel sound in words like "nut" and "bus". It is called a short vowel. 

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʌ/ include the following:

• with "u": bun - bus - but - butter - cut - fun - gun - London - luck - run - lunch - summer - sun - Sunday - thunder - truck - tunnel - under - up - us;
• with "o": another - brother - come - company - cover - done - does - front - love - lover - Monday - money - mother - once - other - stomach - wonder;
• with "oo": blood - flood;
• with "ou": country - couple - cousin - double - trouble;
• with "ough": enough - rough - tough;
• homophones: one/won - some/sum - son/sun

While /ʌ/ is very similar the Spanish letter "a", it is in fact somewhat shorter and many Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing between "hungry" and "angry". Another difficulty is remembering that there are many common words with the letter "o" pronounced /ʌ/. 

Written by Victoria Overton

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