IPA reference · vowel
u — close back rounded vowel
The highest, furthest back vowel, with strongly rounded lips.
How to make the close back rounded vowel
Tongue high and back, lips pushed forward and rounded. Steady, with no glide.
English reference points: boot, food. If you speak English natively you already produce this sound — the work is recognising it and placing it where the target language wants it.
Languages that use it
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for u, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
The substitution learners make for French u and German ü.
Swedish and Norwegian u is central, not back.
What this means for learners
English /uː/ has fronted considerably in many modern accents, so English speakers must actively push the tongue back for a genuine cardinal /u/.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of u attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol u make?
u is the close back rounded vowel. The highest, furthest back vowel, with strongly rounded lips. In English you can hear it in: boot, food.
How do you pronounce u?
Tongue high and back, lips pushed forward and rounded. Steady, with no glide.
Which languages have the close back rounded vowel?
Among the languages covered here: Spanish (luna, “moon”); Italian (uno, “one”).
What is the difference between u and y?
The substitution learners make for French u and German ü.