# 'u' with 'oo' sound **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 19, 2019, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878 "2019-08-19T09:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/1 "2019-08-19T09:42:04Z")
I just heard ‘zumba’ mispronounced by my in-car speach-to-text: around here it’s pronounced “zoomba” Which got me wondering: 1. What English words do you know that use u for oo sound? 2. Is it more common in Brazil/Portugal/Latin countries? I don’t do spelling. For me, this is difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/2 "2019-08-19T09:49:20Z")
1. Not more common, it is how we spell the /u/ sound in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Galego, Basque… Booboo Bear is called _Bubú_ (with or without the little mark depending on language). 2. “Portuguese” 🙂 Now I’m wondering if there is any English dialect which turns that single vowel into a diphthong… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/3 "2019-08-19T10:28:13Z")
The Great Vowel Shift made all the English vowels diverge from Continental European languages. — [Great Vowel Shift - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift) That’s why in IPA, the symbols [a e i o u] represent the simple spelling of Italian, Spanish, and German, for example, have to be learned by Anglo monoglots and it’s why in English the letter names have to be transcribed [eɪ i aɪ əʊ/oʊ ju] ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/4 "2019-08-19T11:07:39Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I just heard ‘zumba’ mispronounced by my in-car speach-to-text: around here it’s pronounced “zoomba” Which got me wondering: > > 1. What English words do you know that use u for oo sound? Round here Zumba is pronounced with the ‘u’ sound somewhere between the long and the short sound. Plenty of English words with a long ‘u’ sound, but they usually have an ‘e’ at the end, like ‘rude’ or ‘amuse’ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/5 "2019-08-19T11:57:29Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I just heard ‘zumba’ mispronounced by my in-car speach-to-text: around here it’s pronounced “zoomba” To clarify: How was it mispronounced? Is this thread about the difference between “oo” and “uh,” or about the difference between “oo” and “yoo”? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/6 "2019-08-19T12:01:21Z")
Not quite the same, but it took me _years_ of seeing [this comic](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/b8/94/d0b894cf5c6141071095541e08c60c67.jpg) pop up in random places (both my brother and I liked the Far Side, so there were some books and calenders around the house) before I understood it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/7 "2019-08-19T13:19:33Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > 1. Is it more common in Brazil/Portugal/Latin countries? In most languages I know or am familiar with, the “u” represents an “oo” sound, assuming you mean “too” as in “too” and not “oo” as in “book.” I would say it’s represented as /u/ in IPA, but, obviously, that doesn’t help in this case. 🙂 So, in addition to the languages above, it’s also true for Polish (and other Slavic languages) and Hungarian as well. French makes a sound like the German ü, so not quite the same as an “oo.” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/8 "2019-08-19T13:19:46Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Round here Zumba is pronounced with the ‘u’ sound somewhere between the long and the short sound. “Long” and “short” don’t really translate across accents. Is the question whether Zumba goes like number, Roomba, or wool? [ˈnʌm bɚ] [ˈzʌm bə] [ˈɹum bə] [ˈzum bə] [wʊl] [ˈzʊm bə] > [@](#): > > Plenty of English words with a long ‘u’ sound, but they usually have an ‘e’ at the end, like ‘rude’ or ‘amuse’ Those are two different vowels [rud] [ə ˈmjuz] ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/9 "2019-08-19T14:15:03Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > 1. What English words do you know that use u for oo sound? Nuclear. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/10 "2019-08-19T14:21:25Z")
I hear njuclear all the time. I suspect English does not really play well with pure vowels. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/11 "2019-08-19T14:50:10Z")
Super Stupid Tumor Puma [ju:] versus [u:] is a dialect thing so YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/12 "2019-08-19T15:11:54Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I hear njuclear all the time. I suspect English does not really play well with pure vowels. Naw, it’s njucyyou-lar 😉 I wonder if the OP was wondering “zumba” pronounced to rhyme with “dumb-ba” versus the “oo” in “room” vs the “oo” in “book”. Also the “u” as a long vowel is extremely common in English. That rhymes with oo as in room. Using it to rhyme with book isn’t unheard of either - e.g. “put”, though not quite as common. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/13 "2019-08-19T15:21:29Z")
I’m not sure I understand the question. Pronouncing English _u_ as ‘oo’ (IPA /uː/) is not at all rare. A _u_ followed by a _e_ later in the same syllable is very often (possibly in most cases) pronounced ‘oo.’ Hence _blue_, _chute_, _true_, _include_, etc. Even without the _e_, the ‘oo’ pronunciation is very common, with hundreds, maybe thousands, of examples. Some of them have sort of an implied _e_ later in the same syllable (E.g., _dilution_ from _dilute_, but many do not) absolution beluga cerulean dilution effluvium fluid glucose hallelujah intuition jubilation kudos lubrication marsupial numeral occlusion plumage quadruped rhubarb super tuna unruly (second _u_) vicuna zucchini I admit I couldn’t find any examples starting with w, x, or y. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/14 "2019-08-19T15:53:45Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I admit I couldn’t find any examples starting with w, x, or y. Watusi Xanthinuria Yule Ok maybe the first two aren’t really English words. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/15 "2019-08-19T16:02:52Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Watusi > Xanthinuria > Yule > > Ok maybe the first two aren’t really English words. Watusi was also a dance craze. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/16 "2019-08-19T16:07:20Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Watusi > Xanthinuria > Yule > > Ok maybe the first two aren’t really English words. Neither is Zumba. Spanish for “it buzzes” or “[imperative] buzz”. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/17 "2019-08-19T16:10:08Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/18 "2019-08-19T16:29:01Z")
Huh nobody’s mentioned the first word that came to my mind. Tuba. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/19 "2019-08-19T16:29:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Those are two different vowels > > [rud] [ə ˈmjuz] /r **u** d/ is a different vowel from /əˈmj **u** z/? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878/20 "2019-08-19T16:35:30Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > /r **u** d/ is a different vowel from /əˈmj **u** z/? Well, yes, in English we distinguish between /u/ and /ju/. I think most English speakers, when asked what the vowel in the second syllable of “amuse” is, would say “you,” not “oo.” So while “you” may be a diphthong and not a pure vowel, it is represented by the letter “u” in many words. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-with-oo-sound/838878.md?page=2)