Phoneme
/ʊ/

/ʊ/ as in "book"

/ʊ/ is a short, lax back vowel of General American English, as in "book" and "foot." To produce it, lips lightly rounded, tongue back. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this vowel.

/ʊ/book
bookalso: foot
Isolated sound
"book"

How to make /ʊ/

short, lax back vowel — lips lightly rounded, tongue back.

Sounds that learners confuse with /ʊ/

Minimal pairs for /ʊ/

/ʊ/ vs /ə/
/ʊ//ə/
bookbuck
putputt
lookluck
tooktuck
couldcud
/ʊ/ vs /u/
/ʊ//u/
pullpool
fullfool
bookboot
footfood
sootsuit
couldcooed