STRUT /ʌ/ “shut” vs NURSE /əː/ “shirt” Watch Video Lesson
- When practising sounds: - FEEL (what can you feel your muscles doing?) - HEAR (listen to the audio tracks and use the hand-phone to listen to yourself)
You may come up with different ideas to the ones in the boxes. That’s fine! STRUT /ʌ/
NURSE /əː/
Spelling Patterns
FEEL HEAR not spelled with the letter “r”: cut, done spelled with letter “r”: further, work
tongue lower than NURSE shorter
tongue central longer
Comparisons
Minimal pairs are words that sound the same apart from one sound. The only difference between hub /hʌb/ and herb /həːb/ is the vowel sound.
Words (minimal pairs in the order /ʌ/ - /əː/)
1 hub – herb 6 cut – curt
2 Hull – hurl 3 pus – purse 7 cuddle – curdle 8 suckle – circle
4 tuck – Turk 9 stun – stern
5 luck – lurk 10 blood - blurred
Potentially Embarrassing Mix-Ups (minimal pairs in the order /ʌ/ - /əː/) 1 ! bugger - burger