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Pronunciation Question: How Do You Native Speakers Pronounce /u/ Before L

yysrVenti
Hello, everyone! I’m currently learning English, and I’ve encountered another pronunciation question. I’ve had similar issues in the past, but I managed to figure them out over time. Now, I’ve come across a new question that I’ve been thinking about for a while. It feels like these questions are never-ending, but I believe this might be the last one I need to solve. The issue concerns words like fool, cool, tool, and school. I’m specifically interested in how the /u/ sound is pronounced before the l. I know that in American English, when /u/ comes before l, it tends to be pronounced with a very back vowel. However, I’m unsure whether it is realized as [ʊul] (with a slight diphthong) or as [ul] (a monophthong). I feel like I’ve heard both variants from native speakers, but since I’m not a native speaker myself, I can’t say for sure. That said, I’m fairly confident that the [ul] pronunciation exists in this context — at least in some cases. So, I’d like to ask all of you native speakers: 1. When /u/ appears before l, do you pronounce it as a monophthong or a diphthong? 2. Which of these two variants do you personally use more often — [ʊul] or [ul]? Please note that this isn’t a highly technical phonetics or linguistics question. It’s simply a matter of pronunciation. Some symbols I used might require a basic understanding of phonetic notation, but at its core, this is a straightforward question about how certain words are pronounced in everyday speech. Thank you in advance for your help! I truly appreciate it.

5 comments

GenXCub•
It's going to depend on the region and the way people learned. The way I would describe it, is "Does the word School have one syllable or two?" That is how I read your question. If School has one syllable, it's a monophthong. If you say "skoo ul" it is two syllables. The one-syllable version is the most common, but the two-syllable version is out there, so I wouldn't say that one is correct and one is wrong, just what is common.
trampolinebears•
I'm from New York and I say *fool full pool pull* with [u:ʟ].
whooo_me•
I.. don't understand the terminology! :) But if you're asking how we pronounce "u" in general before "l", I can tell you the pronunciation seems dependent on context, unfortunately. For instance: Pull, bull, full all are pronounced similarly. But dull, mull, cull, hull, lull, null are pronounced differently to the above. Then in (say) mule/rule, the u is longer/more pronounced again.
zebostoneleigh•
Sadly, although I'm a native speaker, I don't know what you're describing and I can't think of multiple ways to pronounce ool. There probably are various ways in various accents, and maybe hearing what you're trying to describe would help. The phonetics are beyond my ability to decode. So, in summary: I don't understand the question.
FrontPsychological76•
I pronounce all of your examples with /uːl/, but people in other parts of the country pronounce them differently. It just depends on the accent.