U

phoneme /ʌ/
In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic
symbol /ʌ/ corresponds to the monophthong vowel sound in words like "strut", "nut" and
"bus".

When this sound is unstressed it sounds /ə/, and conversely, a stressed /ə/ (impossible
in American English, very rare in Received Pronunciation) normally sounds /ʌ/; however
for many speakers [ʌ] and [ə] are clearly different and any of them can be either stressed
or unstressed.[1]

Since /ʌ/ always is stressed and /ə/ never is, in theory there is no confusion if only one
symbol is used,[2] and some dictionaries follow that rule.[3][4] In this case /ˈstətər/ for
"stutter" must be interpreted as [ˈstʌtər].

Common words
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʌ/ include the following:

● with "u": bun - bus - but - butter - cut - fun - gun - luck - lunch - run - structure -
summer - sun - Sunday - thunder - truck - tunnel - under - up - us
● with "o":
O adjacent to "m": accomplishBrE - Colombia - come - comfort - comfortable
/ˈkʌmftəbəl, ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/ - company - compass - mother - some - stomach

O adjacent to "m" and "n": among - Monday - money - mongrel - monk - monkey -
month

O adjacent to "n": another - confrontation - done - front - honey - London - none -

nothing - one /wʌn/ - once /wʌns/ - onion /ˈʌnjən/ - son - sponge - ton - tongue -
tonne

O adjacent to "n" and "w": won - wonder - wonderful

O adjacent to "v": above - Coventry /ˈkʌvəntriː, ˈkɒvəntriː/ - cover - covet - discover -

dove (bird) - glove - government - love - lover - oven - shovel - slovenly

Other: brother - colorAmE - colourBrE - dozen - other - thorough /ˈθʌrə,BrE ˈθɜːrəʊAmE/

● with "ou": country - couple - cousin - double - southern - touch - trouble -

young
 ● homophones: none - nun; one - won; some - sum; son - sun;

Spelling anomalies
● with "a": was /wʌz,AmE wɒz, wəz/ - wasn't /ˈwʌzənt,AmE ˈwɒzənt/ - what
/wʌt,AmE wɒt, wət/
● with "oe": does (verb) - doesn't
● with "oo": blood - flood
with "ough": enough - rough - tough

/ʌ/ and /ɜː/

See IPA phoneme /ɜː/ — /ɜː/ and /ʌ/.

Variant pronunciations edit

● accomplice /əˈkɑːmplɪsAmE, əˈkʌmplɪsBrE/[5]

● from /frɒm,[6] frʌmAmE/
● twenty /ˈtwɛntiː, ˈtwʌntiːAmE/[7]
● what /wɒt, wʌtAmE/[8]
● anybody /ˈeniːbɒdiː, ˈeniːbʌdiːAmE/
● everybody /ˈevriːbɒdiː, ˈevriːbʌdiːAmE/
● nobody /ˈnəʊbədiː, ˈnəʊbɒdiː,AmE ˈnəʊbʌdiːAmE/
● somebody /ˈsʌmbədiː, ˈsʌmbɒdiː,AmE ˈsʌmbʌdiːAmE/

Anticipated pronunciation
difficulties depending on L1 edit

Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases
with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following
sections aim to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may
encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
Spelling is a big interference for Spanish speakers, and they may rhyme "null" with "full"
and "pull": /nʌl, fʊl, pʊl/ pronounced [nul, ful, pul].