Lessons Unit 1, lesson 8
uː as in blue
One long vowel, on its own page. The ː mark means hold it — hear it alone, then in the words, then say them yourself.
What do the marks mean?
Want the full walkthrough? Read the map explains every mark, with practice.
uːthe oo in blue
Round your lips tightly, as for a kiss, and hold: bluuue. Keep the sound steady all the way through.
Now say it yourself
Read each word from its sheet, out loud, three times. Where there's a play button, listen first and copy what you hear. Slow is fine — speaking clearly matters more than speaking fast. Tap a word's microphone to record yourself and see which sounds landed.
Check your pronunciation, on this device. The first use downloads a small AI listener (about 40 MB, one time, then it's cached). Your voice is analyzed here in your browser — it never leaves your device.
Why learners shorten it
Because this vowel looks similar to the short ʊ in put, learners often clip it the same way. But blue needs full lip rounding, held steady, with the tongue pulled high and back. Say it too short and moon starts to sound like the vowel in put instead — a completely different word to a native ear.
Spellings that signal uw
Look for oo (food, moon, zoo, ooze), ue (blue), ew (new, chew), and plain o in a few short, common words like do and who. In words spelled with u after certain consonants, like you, keep your lips rounded the whole way through — don't let the sound thin out toward the middle.
A quick self-test
Say blue and hold it for a full two seconds, checking that your lips stay tightly rounded from start to finish, without loosening partway through. Then say food next to foot — food should feel noticeably longer and rounder, with no relaxing in the middle of the vowel.