SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /ʌ/: the vowel in cup

Relax your mouth and center your tongue for /ʌ/ in cup and love. Learn the tricky spellings with o and separate it from cat and cop.

/ʌ/

American English: /ʌ/ · monophthong · open-mid · central · unrounded
British English: /ʌ/ · monophthong · short · open-mid · central · unrounded

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Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

My young brother loves the sun.

Mouth & tongue

Enable JavaScript to view the 3D panda. Pronunciation steps remain available below.

Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

The tongue rests in the center of the mouth, the jaw opens moderately and the lips stay neutral. It is short and stressed. In broad IPA, this symbol represents a central vowel in modern English, despite its chart position.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

Spelling o is common here: love, money, come, mother. Northern English accents often use a different vowel, so this contrast is not universal. Learn the pattern from the accent you are following.

Mandarin and Spanish speakers often use a familiar a here. Keep that as a starting point, then make it shorter, more central and less open.

Build the sound, step by step

Relax your face and let your jaw open halfway.
Make a short sound from the center of your mouth, as in cup.
Say money, love and mother, noting the letter o in each.

What to watch for

Reading the letter o as /ɒ/ or /oʊ/ gives errors such as comb for come.
Spreading the lips and moving forward turns cup into cap.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Compare cup and cap, then luck and lock. Center your tongue for cup and luck. Move it forward for cap, and back for the vowel in lock.

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026