Why are there 3 different ways to pronounce oo? The words loose, poodle, food, and most other words with oo have the vowel [u], which is usually spelled u or uh in German Historically this is a long o sound that was written with "oo", the pronunciation of which has shifted to [u] as a result of the Great Vowel Shift Some words with oo have instead the vowel [ʊ]: good, hood, book There
pronunciation - When to pronounce long u as yoo or ooo - English . . . Whether u says oo or yoo is determined by whether or not the preceeding consonant is voiced (vibrates the voice box) or unvoiced Some guidelines for when ‘u’ says oo or yoo are: It usually says oo when it follows a voiced consonant (g, j, l, y, s, r, z) It usually says yoo when it follows an unvoiced consonant (b, d, p, c, f
oo-ee change for plurals - English Language Usage Stack Exchange I have ascertained from my research that whenever an oo word changes its plural form to ee, that word traces to West Germanic The counterexamples come from different languages Questions How did these irregular nouns come to be? When was an oo to ee change first attested, and why didn't the West Germanic speakers simply add an s?
Why is door pronounced with an o sound and not a u? All of the old words spelled with "oo" originally were pronounced with a long [o:] sound, but were raised to [u:] during the Great Vowel Shift This answer doesn't address the central issue of why the vowel was raised in e g "fool" and "room" (and most others) but not in "door" (or "poor" in some dialects) –
Why does the ending -ough have six pronunciations? ough = uː "oo" sound: through < OE þurh; slough (n) (some varieties) According to the OED, the vowel sound used for ough in through is the result of re-stressing a vowel that had become unstressed (the word originated as an unstressed version of thorough)
Why does the pronunciation of U vary in English? U is "oo" for most American speakers, but "yoo" for most British speakers when it falls in a stressed syllable after one of the following consonants: t d n In an unstressed syllable, "long u" can be pronounced several ways due to vowel reduction: juː , jʊ or jə (or after one of the special consonants mentioned above, uː , ʊ