/u/ as in "moon"

/u/ is a long, tense back vowel of General American English, as in "moon" and "food." To produce it, lips firmly rounded, tongue high and back. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this vowel.

How to make /u/

long, tense back vowel — lips firmly rounded, tongue high and back.

Also written as

/uː/

with a length mark in most British and learner dictionaries

Sounds that learners confuse with /u/

• /u/ vs /ʊ/ — /ʊ/ as in "book"

Minimal pairs for /u/

/u/ vs /ʊ/

/u/	/ʊ/
pool	pull
fool	full
boot	book
food	foot
suit	soot
cooed	could