The Forgotten R-Vowel
English has three R-coloured (centring) vowels. Most lessons teach the first two: NEAR /ɪr/ (here, beer) and SQUARE /ɛr/ (hair, care). The third one, CURE /ʊr/, is almost always skipped, yet it appears in everyday words like poor, sure, tour, pure, cure, during, and Europe. This guide fills that gap.
In American English the vowel is built from the book vowel /ʊ/ plus an R, giving /ʊr/. After certain consonants it carries a hidden y-glide /j/, so pure is /pjʊr/ ("pyoor"), not /pur/.
How to Make the Sound
Say the word book and hold its vowel /ʊ/: your lips are slightly rounded and your tongue is high and back, but relaxed. Now, keeping that vowel, glide your tongue toward an American R: book → boor. That glide from /ʊ/ to /r/ is the CURE vowel. Do not let it collapse into the /ɔːr/ of or or the /ʊː/ of too.
The Two Versions: With and Without the Y-Glide
The CURE vowel comes in two flavours depending on the consonant in front of it.
| Type | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Plain /ʊr/ | "oor" | poor, tour, sure, moor, boor, gourmet, your (careful speech) |
| With y-glide /jʊr/ | "yoor" | pure, cure, secure, endure, mature, during, Europe, curious, furious, fury, jury |
The y-glide appears after the same consonants that trigger it in cute and music: /p, b, k, m, f, v, h/ and others. If you already say music as "myoozik," you will add the glide here automatically.
Spelling Patterns That Produce /ʊr/
| Spelling | Examples |
|---|---|
| U-RE | pure, cure, sure, secure, endure, manure, demure, allure |
| OUR | tour, your, gourmet, gourd, detour, contour |
| OOR | poor, moor, boor, spoor |
| UR + vowel | during, jury, fury, curious, furious, plural, rural, mural, Europe |
The American Merger You Should Know About
Here is the twist that makes this vowel tricky. Many American speakers merge the CURE vowel into the NORTH vowel /ɔːr/ (the sound in or, more, door). For these speakers:
- poor sounds like pour/pore → /pɔːr/
- sure sounds like shore → /ʃɔːr/
- tour sounds like tore → /tɔːr/
This is called the cure–force merger, and it is very common in General American. Words with the y-glide resist it more: pure, cure, secure, during, Europe usually keep /jʊr/. As a learner, either pronunciation of poor/sure/tour will be understood. What matters is that the y-glide words stay /jʊr/ and do not lose the glide.
Common Mistakes
1. Replacing /ʊr/ with /ur/ (the BOOT vowel)
Spanish, Portuguese, and French speakers often say poor as "poo-r" with the long /uː/ of too. The CURE vowel is shorter and laxer; the tongue is not as high. Keep it relaxed, like the vowel in book, not tense like boot.
2. Dropping the y-glide
Saying pure as "poor" or cure as "coor" removes the /j/. Native speakers hear a different word. Insert the small "y": p-y-ure, c-y-ure.
3. Adding an extra syllable
Sure and tour are one syllable. Do not say "shu-er" or "tu-er." Glide smoothly from the vowel into the R.
Minimal Pairs and Near-Pairs to Drill
- poor /pʊr/ — pore/pour /pɔːr/ (merged for many Americans)
- sure /ʃʊr/ — shore /ʃɔːr/
- tour /tʊr/ — tore /tɔːr/
- pure /pjʊr/ — purr /pɜːr/
- cure /kjʊr/ — core /kɔːr/
Quick Reference
| Word | IPA | Glide? |
|---|---|---|
| poor | /pʊr/ | No |
| sure | /ʃʊr/ | No |
| tour | /tʊr/ | No |
| pure | /pjʊr/ | Yes |
| cure | /kjʊr/ | Yes |
| during | /ˈdʊrɪŋ/ | No |
| Europe | /ˈjʊrəp/ | Yes (initial) |
Keep Going
The CURE vowel is the last piece of the R-coloured vowel system. Master the other two centring diphthongs in NEAR vs SQUARE: /ɪər/ and /ɛər/, learn the closely related NORTH vowel /ɔːr/ (for, more, door) that many Americans merge it with, and explore all the English vowel sounds.