U (letter)

U is the 21st letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced like the words you and ewe.

Use in English

U is a back vowel, with three basic sounds.

Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes):

The short sound: dúck, fún, úp, cúddle, lúst, múst, lúck, búbble, troúble, soúthern (but not sòuth), nút, cúp, fúss, búg, bús, stún, búlb, pútt golf (cf. pùt place) nún God (= nòne negative). Compare lúck and loòk (both pronounced ‘look’ in Northern England): ú, because it is a single letter, likes to be followed by -ck. ú comes after ò in: Doúglas, floúrish, noúrish, yoúng, troúble, doúble (cf. BrE roûble, AmE rûble).

The long sound has a special characteristic: it normally has an invisible consonantal y before it (like eŵ as in feŵ or ieŵ as in vieŵ). Pronounced yû: tûne, tûbe, cûrious, mûcous, vácuum, Canûte, pûre, cûre, ukelèlê, bûte, cûte, dûty, fûtile, mûte, pûtrid, queûe (*kyoô = cûe) and preferably also stûpid, nûclear, nûde. It is always pronounced yû initially: ûse (verb, voiced s; noun, unvoiced s), ûsual, Ûrals, ûríne. But after l and r it equals oô in toô, foôd, noôn: Lûke, lûnar, flûe chimney = flû influenza, blûe, glûe, rûde, rûle, rûmour, Rûfus, Rûpert, accrûe, scrûple. Some speakers of both AmE and BrE frequently use the oô sound for û, omitting the invisible y - but this can be regarded as substandard. Indeed after l and s there is much flexibility of pronunciation, and not to pronounce a y is less likely to be frowned upon. These may be pronounced either way: lûred, lûrid, lûcid, Lithuânia, sûit, Surinám.

The sound with the invisible y can also be spelt eû: pneumônia, neûrotic, eûphony, psêudo- (and without the y in rheûmatism) or ûi: frûit, jûice, nûisance, slûice, brûise, recrûit, crûise.

There is never any y sound when the spelling is oû: soûp, groûp, throûgh, roûble, Loûvre - though ou has other sounds: yoúng, troúble, doúble, fŏur, cŏurse, ŏught, nŏught, jöurney.

After j it is impossible to make a difference: Jûne, Jûpiter, jûniper, jûry, jûke-bóx, jûte, cf. choôse. There are no words beginning shû- (cf. shút) or chû- (cf. chúm) - except for the French chûte shaft = shoõt gun, which does not have the normal ch sound.

Occasionally with the combination sû there is a tendency to palatalise fully and pronounce the s as sh, as for example in sûre certain, which BrE speakers can make sound like the name Shåw, and which never sounds like sewêr waste, and in íssue (*íshue - though there is a recent trend back to *íssyue) and tíssue. But most words do not palatalise: assûme has the y sound, as usually does sûit, while sûture and sûper have a plain s sound. (The tendency noted above for BrE speakers to make sûre sound like Shåw used to be more widespread, as with, for example, secûrity pronounced *sekyŏrity: it can be heard in old British films.)

ù sounds like oò in foòt and occurs in a few common words: pùsh, bùsh, fùll, pùt, pùdding coùld, woùld, shoùld (silent l’s in the last three).

The grave accent is also used after q. u is almost always the letter that follows q, where it is pronounced w: quêen, quénch, quâke, quíll, quést. Like w, it has an effect on the following a, making it sound like ŏ or ó: uå sounding like wŏ: quårter, quårtz, squåll, quartét, quårt. ùa sounding like wó: sqùalor, qùantity, qùadrangle, qùarrel.

And in some words from Spanish, u is pronounced w: Nicarágua (-gwə), marijuàna (*mariyəwànə), iguàna (*igwànə).

A redundant u sometimes occurs in the middle of ŏr as ŏur in: fŏur, cŏurse, sŏurce, gŏurd. Another redundant u occurs in the middle of ör as öur in jöurney, jöurnal, adjöurn, cöurteous, cöurtesey politeness (cf. cürtsey bow) scöurge and unstressed in Lúxembourg. u is also silent before i in guîde, guílty, buíld, guíld, bíscuit, cïrcuit, and before e in guéss guést, and usually in the ending -ue: tòngue, vâgue, rôgue, burlésque, baròque, unìque, grotésque, but not in âgûe or Móntagûe. āunt and guàrd also have redundant u, as does gâuge (*gâje) though this can be spelt gâge in America.

-us is an ending with the schwa sound, most often in names: Dêlius, Míngus, Tåurus, Sagittãrius, Vênus, Sírius, Cánopus, Aquãrius, Pándarus, Lûpus, Cêtus, Arctûrus, Jûlius, Crássus, Cássius, Vílnius, Epicûrus, Confûcius and also in nouns: ábacus, sánctus, nímbus, sýllabus, ómnibus, détritus, crôcus. But it’s -ous with adjectives: glorious fûrious, têdious, pulchritûdinous, màrvellous.

uu is very rare and can be pronounced as one syllable û - as usually in vácûum - or as two syllables ûù - as in contínûùm

Irregular u’s

Spelling	Pronunciation
au pãir	*ô pãir
au pãir	*ô pãir
Austria	*Óstria
because	*bicóz
bûreau	*byûrô
bureaucracy	*byurócracy
bury earth	bérry fruit
business	*bízniss
busy	*bízzy
faux-pàs	*fô-pà
gauche	*gôsh
laureate	*lóriət
laurel	*lórrəl
Laurence	*Lórrənce (Lawrence is more common)
Laurie name	lórry vehicle
Maurice (BrE) given name	Mórris surname
mauve	*môav (move is pronounced *moôve)
pláteau	*plátô
tábleau	*táblô

Also, in some BrE, u is pronounced f in lieuténant (*lefténant) - though in AmE and other BrE, it is a regular û.