Sound Right

/u/ — the MOON vowel as in moon, food, blue

Main spellings (~75%)

⟨oo⟩ ~40%

The most recognizable spelling.

moon food cool school room too zoo
Watch out: ⟨oo⟩ can also be /ʊ/ as in book and good — see the BOOK vowel.

⟨u.e⟩ ~15%

The split digraph — regular in closed final syllables.

dude include

⟨u⟩ ~10%

Regular in non-final syllables.

student super

Unusual spellings (~25%)

⟨ew⟩

Regular at the end of words.

new knew blew crew

⟨ue⟩

Only at the end of words.

blue true clue

⟨o⟩

A small set of very common words.

do who move prove improve

⟨ou⟩

you group soup route

⟨ui⟩

fruit juice cruise

⟨eu⟩

neutral neutron

⟨ough⟩

through
Two ways to see this: You can think of ⟨ough⟩ as an unusual spelling of /u/, or as a silent ⟨gh⟩ after ⟨ou⟩ — see the silent GH page. Both are valid.

/u/ vs /ʊ/

Don't confuse /u/ with /ʊ/! /u/ is long and tense, /ʊ/ is short and relaxed. Compare: pool vs pull, fool vs full, moon vs book.