How to Pronounce the Letter U - American English | eJOY English
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In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to take a look at how this letter
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is pronounced.
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I often get emails from people asking questions like, 'Why is the CH in CHICAGO pronounced
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differently than the CH in CHOICE?' SH vs. CH. And my answer is always, unfortunately,
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the sounds of American English do not correspond one-to-one with the letters of the alphabet.
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To know for sure how a word is pronounced, you need to either hear a native speaker say
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the word, or look up the word in a dictionary that has the International Phonetic Alphabet
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transcription.
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Let's look at the letter U. In the word 'autumn', it is the schwa sound, uh, uh, autumn. In
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the word 'up', it is the UH vowel. Up. In the word 'union', it is the 'you' diphthong.
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Union. In the word 'bury', the EH vowel. Bury. In the word 'sugar', it is the UH vowel. Sugar.
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In the word 'flute', the 'oo' as in 'boo' vowel. Flute. In the word 'suite', it is the W sound.
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Suite. In the word 'minute', it is the IH vowel. Minute.
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So when you see this letter in a word, you can't make assumptions about how it is pronounced.
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Look it up in a dictionary, or have native speaker say the word to you.
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That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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Don't stop there. Have fun with my real-life English videos. Or get more comfortable with
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the IPA in this play list. Learn about the online courses I offer, or check out my latest
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video.
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How to Pronounce the Letter U - American English

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High Intermediate
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English skills
Learn the many ways the letter U may be pronounced in different words in American English.
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