If you want more information on the photos in this video, which have parts of the mouth drawn in, see this video on the parts of the mouth.

How to make this sound:

Video Text:

The 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong. Diphthongs are normally made up of two different vowel sounds, and the yy sound is the Y consonant sound []. But I've chosen to categorize it as a diphthong because I think it functions as one. So to make the Y consonant sound, the front part of the tongue raises and presses against the roof of the mouth. And the throat closes a bit in the back which makes this sound. You, you. The second sound is the 'oo' as in 'boo' vowel [], where the back of the tongue raises straight up and the lips round. Oo, you. So the lips go from being rather neutral to forming a tight circle where the corners of the lips come in. And the tongue goes from being pressed up in the front to raising in the back. Ew, few. Here you can see both sounds of the 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong. You can see that though in the first sound the lips are rounded, in the second sound they are much more rounded and closed.

Here are both sounds in profile. Again, note that the circle of the lips in the second sound is tighter. Here parts of the mouth are drawn in. You can see that in the first sound, the Y consonant sound, the tongue stretches up and forward. Here I have not drawn the tongue pressing all the way to the roof of the mouth because the center part of the tongue is actually leaving room for the air to pass through. So the sides of the top of the tongue are pressing the sides of the roof of the mouth, leaving a small passageway down the center. In the second sound the tongue stretches up and back. Ew. So the tongue has to make this movement from being forward and raised to being back and raised in this diphthong.

Sample words: view, use, music. Sample sentence: You are one of few pupils writing beautiful poetry. Now you will see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the mouth moves when making this diphthong.

You, you can see the lips round, but they come in tighter towards the end of the diphthong. And the tongue moves back as you can see the space between the teeth getting darker. Are, tongue moves into the R consonant position []. One, lips come small, tongue goes up to make the N. Of, the lip to the teeth to make the V sound. Few, another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong: lips start bigger and then come in to the tighter circle. Lips together for the P, pupils, another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong. Writing, lips form a tight R position, and then open into the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong []. And the tongue moves up into the T position. Beautiful, another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong here. Tongue tip up to make the T and the tongue up to make the F. Poetry, the 'oh' as in 'no' diphthong []. The T, then the lips make the R position, and the lips pull back into the 'ee' as in 'she' [].

And now from an angle. You, the lips form and you see the tongue begin to pull back as the lips tighten into a tighter circle. Are, you see the tongue back there making the R consonant sound. One. Tongue up to make the N. Of, lip up to make the V and the F, and another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong, you see the tongue moving back. Pupils, another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong. And again the lips tighten into a tight circle as the lips move back. Writing, the tongue up to touch the roof of the mouth for the T, beautiful, another 'ew' as in 'few' diphthong. The tongue up to touch the roof of the mouth for the T. Poetry, 'oh' as in 'no' diphthong. There's the R consonant sound. And then the corners of the lips pull back into the 'ee' as in 'she' sound.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: []

This is a diphthong, combining two sounds. See the individual pages on these sounds: the [] sound page, the [] sound page.

Miss the old sound video? See it here.