does boot has a long u sound?

[harriet_yang]

Dear teachers,

Does "long u" sound come with two variations? I read from the phonics book that words such as "cube," "beautiful" have "long u" sound, which I understand perfectly. "Long u" sound has exactly the same sound as the letter name (u).

What I don't understand is that words such as "boot" "blue" "juice" also are listed as having "long u" sound. Vowels in these words sound a bit different to my ears.

Boot would be /bu:t/, while cube is /kju:b/. So both /u:/ and /ju:/ are "long u" sound?

So, what's going on here?

Thanks!
Harriet

 

[Raymott]

What you have said is correct. What's going on is precisely what you've identified.
Some people might argue that the /j/ is not part of the /u:/, so you'd expect the /u:/ component to sound the same, and it does.

 

[MikeNewYork]

All the words you listed have a long "u" vowel sound for me.