Pronounce English Accurately

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Vowel 6: short /ʌ/

Vowel No. 6, short / ʌ/ is very much the same as No. 5, the schwa, except that /ʌ/ occurs in stressed syllables whereas /ə/ never can.

As for the schwa, the tongue is in mid, central position, and the lips in a neutral posture. The mouth is perhaps a little more open.

Again, it is short and lax.

The most important difference is that it is more strongly spoken whereas schwa is very weak.

The archetypal spelling of /ʌ/ is the letter 'u', as in

hut

cup

uncle

us

and funny.

Another extremely common spelling is the letter 'o' as in

one, won - you will hear these pronounced /wɒn/, rhyming with 'gone', but this is non-standard and should be avoided. The standard pronunciation is /wʌn/, rhyming with 'bun'.

Also 'once', with No. 6, the /ʌ/ vowel.

Also spelt with 'o' and pronounced with No. 6 are 'mother' and 'brother', 'other' and 'another'.

There's also 'ou' as in 'rough' and 'tough' and in many other words,

and more strangely the 'oo' in 'blood' is /ʌ/: /blʌd/.

As far as I know, the only other word with 'oo' pronounced like this is 'flood'.

Also unusual is the 'oe' in 'does': /dʌz/ - unique, I think.

Here's an example of both, in the same word.

'No buts, it's got to be butter!' was the slogan of a butter advertisement in Britain some longish time ago. Here the word 'but' is a noun, it's stressed, and it's pronounced with /ʌ/: /bʌts/.

But when I use the word 'but' in its normal use, as a conjunction, it has a schwa.

I just said it: “But when I use the word 'but'” - the first time with a schwa, the second time with /ʌ/.

“But 'but' isn't normally a noun”, I hear you exclaim!

“No, but when it is, it's pronounced 'but'”, I reply.

That's the difference between schwa and /ʌ/.

Some example words with /ʌ/:

Spelt with 'u':

'butter'

'fudge'

'pub'

'stuff'

Spelt 'o':

'love'

'glove'

'dove'

'one, won'

'other, another'

'wonder'.

Spelt 'ou':

'country'

'couple'

'cousin'

'double'

'touch'

'trouble'

'thorough'

/ʌ/ and schwa can never be contrastive because schwa always occurs in unstressed syllable. Schwa can be pronounced too strongly, however, making an accent sound foreign and making it impossible to bring out the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables.

Practice sentences

That judge, when young, juggled much more than he judged.

Tuck him up in bed at once, and tell him to mind the bugs.

Fluffy fudge is something I just love.