Today, we’re following on from last week’s episode on /Ʌ/ and /ʊ/, looking at the short vowel /ʊ/ and adding on the long vowel /u:/.
Let’s start with some common words with the sounds separately. We’ll start by repeating just a few of the /ʊ/ sounds from last week.
1. bullet
2. butcher
3. cook
4. cushion
5. foot
6. good
7. hook
8. push
9. stood
10. sugar
11. took
12. woman
And now some common words with /u:/
1. afternoon
2. bedroom
3. boot
4. choose
5. do
6. food
7. fruit
8. future
9. improve
10. lose
11. movie
12. music
13. news
14. pool
15. routine
16. rule
17. shoe
18. soon
19. student
20. supermarket
21. through
22. to
23. tooth
24. true
25. use
26. view
27. who
28. you
There are very few minimal pairs with /ʊ/ and /u:/, and as last week some of them venture into some strange vocabulary! There are so few today that we’ll read all the words both ways. First, listen to and repeat both.
1. full fool
2. look Luke
3. pull pool
4. soot suit
We could also consider two more, but only where the modal verbs take their stressed rather than unstressed form (where the vowel is reduced to schwa).
5. could cooed
6. should shooed
Now I’ll read the /ʊ/ form. Can you add the /u:/?
1. full
2. look
3. pull
4. soot
5. could
6. should
Listen and check.
1. full fool
2. look Luke
3. pull pool
4. soot suit
5. could cooed
6. should shoed
And now I’ll read the /u:/ form. Can you add the /ʊ/?
1. fool
2. Luke
3. pool
4. suit
5. cooed
6. shoed
Listen and check.
1. full fool
2. look Luke
3. pull pool
4. soot suit
5. could cooed
6. should shoed
Let’s now try some sentences with a combination of the words we’ve looked at.
- Luke looks cool at the pool.
- His suit looks full of soot.
- The butcher soon cooked good food.
- You stood on the bedroom cushion in shoes!
- As a rule, the woman took to the pool in the afternoon.
And as always, it would be brilliant practice for you to choose your own words from the list and make your own sentences.