Regardless of what you want to call it, it can be a difficult sound for many Brazilians to master. 

The most common tendency of Brazilians is to make a sound in between /U/ sound in Portuguese (like tabú, maracatú) and the correct sound of the other U. 

So this mistake usually has to do with two things: you are rounding your lips just a little too much and your tongue is just a little too low. 

So to produce the other U sound, your lips should be relatively relaxed (compared to the /OO/) and your lips tend to flare out a little bit towards the end of the sound. It is a very deep sound in the back of the throat. 

The sound is often represented by double O in English, like good, book, look, cook, foot, neighborhood.

Another common representation is with U, for example, push, put, sugar. 

Finally, we this sound also occurs with ou in words like could, should, would. 

Even some of my most advanced students pronounce this sound correctly with certain words and incorrectly with others, so it is important to practice this sound in a variety of contexts.

Let’s go. 🏋️‍♀️