How to pronounce knew in American English

IPA /nu/ Syllables 1 · noo Stress 1st syllable

NOO

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Americans pronounce knew as NOO (/nu/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Few knew the user of the computer" or "None of the nine nurses knew the name" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "knew".

1 syllable, 2 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

oo/u/

Round your lips into a tight circle. Let your tongue rest in the middle of your mouth, slightly raised.

In real conversation

Hear "knew" in the wild.

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

"Few knew the user of the computer."

FYOO NOO dhuh YOO·zer uhv dhuh kuhm·PYOO·der

"I knew he threw the ball right through the new window."

ahy NOO hee THROO dhuh BAHL RAHYT throo dhuh NOO WIHN·doh

"None of the nine nurses knew the name."

NUHN uhv dhuh NAHYN NUR·suhz NOO dhuh NAYM

"Who knew the truth about the blue shoes?"

hoo NOO dhuh TROOTH uh·BOWT dhuh BLOO SHOOZ

"She walked through the new door because she knew the way."

shee WAHKT throo dhuh NOO DOR buh·KUHZ shee NOO dhuh WAY

"They threw the old boxes away when they knew the new ones arrived."

dhay THROO dhee OHLD BAHK·suhz uh·WAY wehn dhay NOO dhuh NOO WUHNZ uh·RAHYVD

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "knew" 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 "NOO" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.