The long /uː/ sound, as in blue and moon, can be spelled four common ways: UE, EW, OO, and U-E. As with most English vowel spellings, where in the word it appears decides which form to use.
The Rule in One Glance
- OO goes in the middle (moon, food, room).
- U-E (silent E) goes when one consonant follows (tube, rude, June).
- UE goes at the end after some consonants (blue, true, glue).
- EW goes at the end (new, few, grew).
Practice Words
Why Each Position Works
English avoids ending words in U or OO alone because U at the end looks unfinished and OO at the end is rare. So:
- OO sits comfortably in the middle, surrounded by consonants: m-OO-n, t-OO-l, sp-OO-n.
- U-E forms the classic "vowel + consonant + silent E" frame.
- UE appears after L, R, and a few other consonants when no other consonant follows.
- EW provides a clean ending where the W acts almost like a consonant closer.
The /juː/ Cousin
The same letters can also represent /juː/, with a Y-glide added before the vowel:
- UE in cue, fuel, argue = /juː/.
- EW in few, view, knew = /juː/ for many speakers.
- U-E in cute, music, use = /juː/.
The Y-glide stays after most consonants in British English. American English drops it after T, D, N, S, L, and R, so news becomes "noos" instead of "nyoos". This is "yod-dropping," and it is perfectly standard.
Watch Out For
- OO can also be /ʊ/ (book, look, foot). Before K, OO is almost always short. Before D it goes both ways: food /uː/ vs good /ʊ/.
- UE in some words is silent: tongue, plague, league. The U is just protecting the G from going soft.
Once you map the four spellings to position, you can guess most /uː/ words correctly on first try.