English How to Pronounce EW ju Diphthong American Accent
The ‘ew’ as in ‘few’ diphthong. The first
sound of this diphthong is the Y consonant.
Diphthongs are normally made up of two vowel
sounds, but in this diphthong, the Y consonant
is acting as a vowel. To make this sound,
the front part of the tongue will push behind
the bottom front teeth, yy, yy, while the
mid/front part of the tongue will raise and
actually make contact with the roof of the
mouth. YY, yy, yyuu. Also, there’s a sort
of pinching off here in the throat that gives
the Y sound that quality. Yyuu, yyuu. The
second half of the diphthong is the ‘oo’ as
in ‘boo’ vowel, yyuu. You may find that the
lips start to form that tight circle of the
vowel oo, even as you’re making the Y consonant
sound, yyuu, yyuu. In the ‘oo’ as in ‘boo’
vowel, the back part of the tongue stretches
up towards the back of the roof of the mouth
and soft palate area. So the tongue goes from
being raised in the front, touching the front
part of the roof of the mouth, to pulling
up and stretching towards the back of the
roof of the mouth. The tip of the tongue still
remains forward in the ‘oo’ as in ‘boo’ vowel,
jjuu, here behind the bottom front teeth,
or slightly lower, in the soft tissue. Yyuu,
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 sound. 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
lip 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 sound, few, the lips up to make 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. That’s it, and thanks so
much for using Rachel’s English.