How to Pronounce the /ʌ/ Sound

Explore the /ʌ/ sound, a key vowel in English. Learn its unique characteristics, how to produce it correctly, and practice its distinct pronunciation.

In this lesson, we are going to learn how the sound /ʌ/ is produced by looking at the articulatory organs.

What Type of Sound Is /ʌ/?

/ʌ/ is a short vowel between /o/ and /ɑ/. It is the unrounded form of /ɔ/.

How to Produce /ʌ/?

Mouth Configuration for /ʌ/

To produce it, as you see in the picture, the mouth must be open a little bit and the lips must be unrounded. As you can see in the picture, the mouth is more open than the /ɑ/ sound and less rounded than when producing the /o/ sound.

Which Letters are Pronounced as /ʌ/?

The sound /ʌ/ is represented by the following letters:

Pie Chart of the Letters that Make the /ʌ/ Sound

much /mʌtʃ/

umbrella /ʌmˈbɹɛlə/

company /ˈkʌm.pə.ni/

front /fɹʌnt/

country /ˈkʌn.tri/

cousin /ˈkʌzən/

blood /blʌd/

flood /flʌd/

/ʌ/ Around the World

As you can see in the table below, most of the common languages around the world do not have this sound. Do not worry if the sound does not exist in your language, with a little practice you will be able to produce it.

	Existence	Example
Mandarin	x	-
Spanish	x	-
Hindi	x	-
Bengali	x	-
Portuguese	x	-
Russian	x	-
Japanese	x	-
Vietnamese	x	-
Turkish	x	-
French	x	-
German	x	-
Italian	x	-
Persian	x	-
Standard Arabic	x	-
Korean	✔	거울
Indonesian	x	-
Filipino	x	-
Hungarian	x	-
Dutch	✔	jou
Polish	x	-
Romanian	x	-
Swedish	x	-
Czech	x	-
Greek	x	-
Ukrainian	x	-
Urdu	x	-

Listening

Let's listen to the pronunciation of the /ʌ/ sound which has been mentioned below:

Down below, there are two other sounds similar to the /ʌ/ sound. At first, listen to the /ɑ/ sound and then listen to the /o/ sound:

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What Type of Sound Is /ʌ/?
How to Produce /ʌ/?
Which Letters are Pronounced as /ʌ/?
/ʌ/ Around the World
Listening

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