Adult Reading Lessons: Alphabet Letter U

Adult learners use this page to explore the sounds each alphabet letter can make. Using IPA symbols helps prepare learners for using a dictionary. Word drills provide structured reading practice using lists of words grouped by sound and take learners on the next step in their reading journey.

Goal: recognize and name the letter U; hear each distinct sound letter U makes; voice those sounds.

Introducing U sounds

Click, Listen, and Repeat

Name IPA Symbol Examples
Short U as in but:
 , , .
Long U as in blue:
 , , .

U can take on other vowel sounds.

Name IPA Symbol Examples
Like as in put:
 , , , .

Rhyming U Words

Click, listen and learn these U sounds by finding rhyming words.

U and V Rarely Speak

The letter V does not often follow the letter U in words. O is used instead.

Words rarely end with the consonant V or the combination UV. In fact, if V follows U in a word, it is rarely pronounced in the same syllable, as in ju-ven-ile. O is used instead of U to pronounce the U and V sound in the same syllable and O is also used to produce the OV sound, as in

  • Long O: drove, rove,
  • Short U: love, dove, glove,
  • Long U: move, prove.
Sounding out such words isn't always helpful, and a good memory is a more useful tool for OV letter combinations. O is used instead of Long U in other words too, as in too, to, two, do, boot, and tool.

Cacoethes Scribendi

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)


If all the trees in all the woods were men;
And each and every blade of grass a pen;
If every leaf on every shrub and tree
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
Were changed to ink, and all earth's living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
The human race should write, and write, and write,
Till all the pens and paper were used up,
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.

Fill out the table below. Hover the mouse to see the answers.

short u long u u after r Double OO
hover for answer

shrub, up cup, clustered, but
hover for answer
human, foolscap, used, huge
hover for answer

turned
hover for answer

should