Uh... It's Time to Learn Letter U and its Sound

Vowel Worksheets for "U"

Letter U is the fifth and last vowel of the English alphabet, and it makes the /u/ sound - sounds like "uh". Say "UH". For example, "UP" or "CUT". For soundings of the other vowels and consonants, please use the navigation menu to the right.

To make the "uh" sound, you jaw drops slightly and your mouth opens. Say "uh" several times.

To get an idea of how /u/ should sound, here are some example words:

CUP - /c/ /u/ /p/

RUST - /r/ /u/ /s/ /t/

RUM - /r/ /u/ /m/

Learning Activity for /u/

• For the following activity, first prepare a printout for the letter U, and also prepare a printout for the following words:
  • UP
  • CUP
  • BUT
  • SUM
  • MUST
  • CRUST
  • FLUSH
• Follow these steps:

1. Show the letter U printout to your child and demonstrate how to make the "uh" sound.
2. Your child's turn. Let your child practice making the /u/ sound.
3. Practice the "uh" sound with the letter U words provided above. You can add your own to the list as well.
4. Ask your child if he or she can think of any other "uh" sound words.
5. Let's play sound substitution game.
   1. If we get rid of the /p/ sound in CUP, and add in a /t/ sound, what word is it now? /c/ /u/ /t/ (CUT!)
   2. Remove the /u/ sound in BUT and put in an /a/ sound, what is it now? /b/ /a/ /t/ (BAT)
   3. If we remove the /m/ (Mmmmm) sound in MUST, and add in a /g/ sound, what word is it now? /g/ /u/ /s/ /t/ (GUST)
6. You can practice this phoneme substitution task with any other word.
7. Phoneme identification practice: ask your child to find and identify all the /u/ "uh" sounds in the above list of words.
8. Work on the U worksheet provided below.

Letter U Worksheets