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 'uh' as in 'pull' sound. To make the sound, the back part of the tongue stretches up towards the soft palate, uh. It doesn't touch it, that would be the G or K consonant sounds. But it pulls in that direction. The tip of the tongue stays forward, touching behind the bottom of the front teeth. Uh. You can see also that the lips round, so the corners of the lips come in, which brings the lips away from the face just a bit. Uh, pull.

Here is the 'uh' as in 'pull' sound on the right, compared with the mouth at rest on the left. Notice that the corners of the mouth are pushed slightly forward, which causes the center part of the lips to come away from the face. Here, parts of the mouth are drawn in. As with all vowels, the soft palate is raised. But more importantly, notice the position of the tongue. It stretches up and back with the back part of the tongue. This pulls the tip of the tongue back. So the tongue is very close to but not quite touching the bottom teeth. The 'uh' as in 'pull' sound.

Sample words: should, would, put. Sample sentence: Would you look up in the cookbook how much sugar we'll need for the cookies? Now we'll see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can see how the tongue and the lips move to make this sound. Would, the lips form the W. The vowel sound here is very quick. There it is, we are already into the D and Y []. You look up in the cook-, uh vowel, -book, another uh vowel. How much su-, sugar. Another uh vowel sound. We'll need - we'll, tongue up for the L and N. For the cookies. Another uh vowel sound. -ies, cookies.

And now from the angle. Would. The lips form the W. Again, this vowel very quick. You look, again, look has the uh vowel but it's very quick. Up, here the jaw is dropping for the 'up'. In the, tongue comes through the teeth for the TH []. Cook-, now here we have the uh vowel, -book, and we have it again. How. Lips come together for the M in much, sugar, another uh vowel. We'll need, the lips form the W, corners of the lips pull back for the 'ee' as in 'she' [] vowel in 'need'. For the, tongue through the teeth for the 'the'. Cookies. Another 'uh' as in 'pull', and the corners of the mouth pull back for the 'ee' as in 'she', the second syllable of cookies.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: []

Read more about this vowel and see other languages in which it occurs here.

Miss the old sound video? See it here.