Unit 3: A spoonful of sugar /uː/ and /ʊ/

A. How to make the sound /uː/

/u:/ is a long sound. Look at the diagram. Listen and then say the sound. Make your lips into a tunnel shape. Your tongue is a long way back in your mouth. Target sound: /u:/

B. Sound and spelling

/u:/ is often spelled oo, ou, oe, u, ue or ew. Listen and say these words.

• too: /tuː/
• group: /ɡruːp/
• shoe: /ʃuː/
• blue: /bluː/

Listen and say these other words with /uː/:

• music: /ˈmjuː.zɪk/
• new: /nuː/
• two: /tuː/
• fruit: /fruːt/
• juice: /dʒuːs/

Now listen and say these phrases:

1. me too: /miː tuː/
2. work in groups: /wɜːrk ɪn ɡruːps/
3. new shoes: /nuː ʃuːz/
4. red and blue: /red ənd bluː/
5. listen to the music: /ˈlɪs.ən tə ðə ˈmjuː.zɪk/
6. forty-two: /ˌfɔːr.ti ˈtuː/
7. fruit juice: /ˈfruːt dʒuːs/

C. How to make the sound /ʊ

/ʊ/ is a short sound. Look at the diagram. Listen and then say the sound. Your tongue is not so far back as for /ʊ/. Target sound: /ʊ/

D. Sound and spelling

/ʊ/ is often spelled u, oo or ou. Listen and say these words.

• full: /fʊl/
• sugar: /ˈʃʊɡ.ər/
• book: /bʊk/
• foot: /fʊt/
• would: /wʊd/

Listen and say these other words with /ʊ/:

• woman: /ˈwʊm.ən/

Now listen and say these phrases:

1. My bag’s full /maɪ bæɡz fʊl/
2. Where’s my book? /werz maɪ bʊk/
3. my left foot /maɪ left fʊt/
4. a kilo of sugar /ə ˈkiː.loʊ əv ˈʃʊɡ.ər/
5. Who’s that woman? /huːz ðæt ˈwʊm.ən/