Ooh Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Two of the simplest words to have the 'ooh' sound are do and to. Slightly longer, but with the same sound are ado and who, as in the question. Many of the words which look like those have the sound of the name for the letter O. Go, mo, no, po, rho, so and yo are some that come to mind.

Pool and ooze are only two of the words which make the obvious 'ooh' sound from the double o combination. However, there are many words which use that combination, and they do not all result in the same sound. Some of them vary in their pronunciation depending on which part of England, the United Kingdom, or the rest of the world that you come from. I think moor and poor rhyme with law, but some people may add the r sound to the end, and others may disagree altogether. Boom and zoom have the 'ooh' sound. Room is more controversial; I sometimes pronounce it with the 'ooh' sound, and sometimes shorten the vowel sound to the same as the u in put.

Two is one of three homophones which have the 'ooh' sound; the others are to and too. Swot, of course, sounds completely different, being pronounced phonetically. Shoe uses oe to make the 'ooh' sound. The plural, shoes, keeps that sound. Other words which look like that are pronounced differently, such as does and goes.

Due and clue both have the 'ooh' sound. Regional or national variations may insert a y sound before the 'ooh', but that doesn't detract from the 'ooh'. Others include blue, cue, glue, hue, queue, rue, and sue. The past tense of sue is sued, which also has the 'ooh' sound. Adding an e to that word gives suede, which sounds like swayed.

You and (for many people) route both have the 'ooh' sound. Without the e, route becomes rout, which rhymes with trout and gout, and sounds like the vowel sound used for a squeal of pain written as 'ow' or 'ouch' - and some people pronounce route the same way. Adding an r to the ou gives words like four and court. In my mind they have the same vowel sound as taut, but even though some people may sound the r, they still do not have the 'ooh' sound. English has adopted the French word 'roux', meaning burned butter, as a word for a mixture of flour and butter used for making a sauce; that word also uses the ooh sound.

New and threw both have the 'ooh' sound, as do dew, few, flew, hew, knew, mew, and pew. Sew is pronounced like so, and rhymes with go and no. Adding the n to make the past tense does not change the vowel sound. The word 'sew' comes from the Old English 'siwan', which is of Germanic origin. Sewed, using the same vowel sound, is also used for the past tense. A sewer, as someone who sews, has a similar sound, but it should not be confused with a sewer, meaning a drainage pipe or ditch, which comes from Old Northern French 'seuwiere', and has the ooh sound in it.

Flu is short for influenza, and has the 'ooh' sound. The Greek letter nu and the alternative name for a wildebeest, gnu, have the same sound. Other words with have a single u can sound quite different; run is one of those. Adding an e to the end of run gives rune, which does have the 'ooh' sound. There are many other words with an e added to give that sound; tune and flute are two of them.

Another combination to give the 'ooh' sound is ough. Those letters have many different possible pronunciations. Through and brougham (a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) are two which have the 'ooh' sound - unless you pronounce brougham to rhyme with Rome. Trough rhymes with toff. Rough sounds like ruff. Bough rhymes with now and cow. Thought and bought both rhyme with taut. Dough sounds like an exclamation from Homer Simpson, doh, and rhymes with roe and toe. Brough as a small village in north-western England rhymes with rough; Brough as a small village in north-eastern Scotland rhymes with loch. Middlesbrough, in north-eastern England, uses neither sound, and is approximately middles-brr.

Through is of Germanic origin, coming from the Old English 'thurh'. Trough comes from the Old English 'trog', and is also of Germanic origin. Rough comes from the Old English 'ruh' originating in western Germany. Bough, another word of Germanic origin, comes from the Old English 'bog' or 'boh', meaning bough or shoulder, and it is related to the word bow, meaning the front of a ship. Dough comes from the Old English 'dag', and is another word of Germanic origin. Thought, also of Germanic origin, comes from the Old English 'thoht'. So several different and differently spelled Old English words have acquired the same spelling in modern English, but kept different sounds due to their different origins.

A combe or coomb or coombe is a valley in parts of southern England, and has the 'ooh' sound. It is more commonly used as part of a place name, such as Combe Martin, Ilfracombe and Woolacombe in Devon, where they have the 'ooh' sound. However, Boscombe, in Dorset, sounds like Boskam. Combe comes from the Old English 'cumb' and is of Celtic origin, being related to the Welsh cwm, meaning a valley. The word should not be confused with a comb, which comes from the Old English 'camb', and is of Germanic origin.

So if you bought a tough new blue suede shoe from Ilfracombe to cover the toes on your foot, how many 'ooh' sounds are there?