w/w/
Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.
How to pronounce wool in American English
WUUL
Start here
Americans pronounce wool as WUUL (/wʊl/). The L in "wool" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. This is called the Dark L vs Light L, the kind of sound shift that makes everyday speech feel effortless. It comes out as WUUL. You'll hear it in sentences like "Who took my wool sweater?" or "Pull the full wool ball from the wall" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "wool".
1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
uu/ʊ/
Bring the corners of your lips in slightly so they push forward, but keep them relaxed. Lift the back of your tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
l/l/
DarkKeep the tongue tip down and pull the back of the tongue up toward the throat. The 'dark' sound comes from the back.
In real conversation
Hear "wool" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Pull the full wool ball from the wall."
PUUL dhuh FUUL WUUL BAHL fruhm dhuh WAHL
"The wool sweater looked full of hooks."
dhuh WUUL SWEH·der LUUKT FUUL uhv HUUKS
"They raise cattle and sheep for wool and meat."
dhay RAYZ KA·duhl and SHEEP fer WUUL and meet
"Who took my wool sweater?"
hoo TUUK mahy WUUL SWEH·der
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Treating every L the same.
The L in "wool" is a dark L — the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate, adding a small "uh" quality before the L. Dark L adds a small schwa-like "uh" before the L. The back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate.
wool→WUUL
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "wool" 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 "WUUL" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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