long u /ū/

long u is the /ū/ sound like in ‘cute’, or when the vowel says its name.

1. /ū/ can be spelled u, like in ‘human’, ‘unicorn’
   /ū/ can be spelled ew, like in ‘flew’
   2. /ū/ can be spelled ui, like in ‘fruit’
   3. /ū/ can be spelled ue, like in ‘blue’
   4. when the silent e uses its magic, like in ‘cute’
   5. /ū/ can be spelled oo, like in ‘moon’ (see oo lesson, when /oo/ spelled as oo)
   6. /ū/ can be spelled as o (to, do, who)
   7. sometimes /ū/ can be spelled ou (you, group), o_e (lose, move), oe (canoe, shoe)

Let’s be honest here. This letter sound is very hard. It has many spellings and homophones, like blew blue, and to, two, too. The so-called ‘u’ sound is sometimes a ‘yoo’ sound and sometimes a ‘oo’ sound (blew = oo)(cute = yoo). There are some rules for these, like words that start with ch, d, j, l, r or s follow with an ‘oo’, and some letters like ‘t’ are followed by either sound. We’ve made some great word lists and a practice sheet for you to recognize the ‘u’ sound in all its tricky spots, and to make some sort it games.

Stay tuned ! (see, you could pronounce that ‘tooned’ or ‘tyooned’). /ū/ spelled oo, like in ‘scoot’ is below and we’ll possibly make some more video lessons soon.

moon, toot, scoot, balloon, soon