Producing /ʊr/

How to produce /ʊr/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/ʊr/
CURE r-colored
Lips: rounded
Tongue: high-back
Voicing: voiced
💡 Relaxed /ʊ/ then add the American r curl.

Key production cues:

High-back rounded /ʊ/ gliding into American r. Increasingly merged into NORTH in modern GenAm.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

1. Say /ʊr/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
2. Say /ʊr/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /ʊr-ʊr-ʊr-ʊr-ʊr/.
3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /ʊr/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: pure, pure, pure
• Middle: pure, pure, pure
• End / in clusters: pure, pure, pure

/ʊr/CURE r-coloredArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗