What's new on IELTS with Fiona

Being Welsh, I struggle with the pronunciation of 'u' in words like 'tutor' ,'tube' and 'music'.

I have to force myself to insert a /j/ sound (🟡 the 'y' sound in 'yellow' known as the 'yod' sound), as this is how most British English accents pronounce it.

Most American accents don't insert a /j/ sound - I hope you can hear the difference in this short video.

UK: ˈtjuːtə. US: ˈtuːtər Welsh: /tɪwtə/

Dr Geoff Lindsey has a fantastic video about this on YouChube (or YouToob in the US!)

In the video, he explains some interesting features of this 'u' sound and when people drop the 'yod':

• UK drops the yod: super, soup /ˈsuːpə/
• UK keeps the yod: museum, mute /mjuːzɪəm/ /mjuːt/
• US drops the yod: tube, dune, Luke, consume /ˈtuːb/
• US keeps the yod: cube, immune, puke, confuse /kjuːb/
• Old words keep the yod: Cuba, Ukraine, Rasputin /kjuːbə/
• Recent words drop the yod: jacuzzi, Putin, sudoku, Malibu, Keanu, dude /ˈduːd/