How to pronounce few in American English

IPA /fju/ Syllables 1 · fyoo Stress 1st syllable
FYOO
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Americans pronounce few as FYOO (/fju/).

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Why it sounds different

Why "few" sounds like FYOO.

Between "" and "", a brief "" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow. This is called the Vowel-to-Vowel Linking, the way sentences stop sounding like a list and start sounding like speech. It comes out as FYOO.

In real conversation

Hear "few" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"A few huge cubes."
uh FYOO HYOOJ KYOOBZ
"Few knew the user of the computer."
FYOO NOO dhuh YOO·zer uhv dhuh kuhm·PYOO·der
"I have been feeling under the weather for the past few days."
ahy hav bihn FEE·luhng UHN·der dhuh WEH·dher fer dhuh PAST FYOO DAYZ
"I need to pick up a few items."
ahy NEED tuh PIHK UHP uh FYOO AHY·duhmz
"I usually read a few chapters before going to sleep at night."
ahy YOO·zhoo·uh·lee REED uh FYOO CHAP·terz buh·FOR GOH·uhng tuh SLEEP uht NAHYT
"I'll call you back in a few minutes."
ahyl KAHL yuh BAK ihn uh FYOO MIH·nuhts
Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "few" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "FYOO" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.

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