When learning to cue, it can be tough to recognize and correctly cue the difference between /uo͞oueuo͞oueuo͞oue/ (as is Luke) and /ʊo͝oooʊo͝oooʊo͝ooo/ (as in look).
| /uo͞oueuo͞oueuo͞oue/ (chin placement) | /ʊo͝oooʊo͝oooʊo͝ooo/ (throat placement) |
| suit | soot |
| who'd | hood |
| fool | full |
| stewed | stood |
| cooed | could |
| shoed | should |
| kooky | cookie |
| pool | pull |
| nuke | nook |
Like many phonemes, variation can occur by dialect. In certain areas of the country (e.g., New York and New Jersey), it is not uncommon for words like room, roof, and broom to be pronounced with /ʊo͝oooʊo͝oooʊo͝ooo/ and cued at the throat placement.
Some words are especially tricky due to their spelling. Consider the words put and putt. They differ in spelling but the addition of an additional letter Tt. How do they differ in pronunciation? When cued these words actually differ in the vowel building block – put is cued at thge throat placement and putt is cued with a side-down movement.
R-colored vowels are notoriously difficult to recognize at first. There is also some variation among "or" words. (See r-colored vowels for more information). Some dialects pronounce "or" words with /uo͞oueuo͞oueuo͞oue/ (at the chin placement) and many dialects have certain words that may use /ʊo͝oooʊo͝oooʊo͝ooo/: tour, sure.
cool, do, flew, loose, group, soon, spoon, rule, soup, true, who, wound
books, bull, crook, foot, hook, pussyfoot, rook, took, wool
The following list contains both words with /uo͞oueuo͞oueuo͞oue/ and /ʊo͝oooʊo͝oooʊo͝ooo/. Try cueing the words placing them at the correct placement. You can click on a word to check yourself.
boots, brook, bully, coupon, choose, football, glue, hoodie, pudding, route, shook, soon, sugar, tooth, spooky, woman