IPA phonetic sequence /juː/

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic sequence /juː/ corresponds to the diphthong in words like "cute", "few", "university", or "music".

This sequence is not considered a phoneme because it can be studied as /j/+/uː/. However, since it is very common, this diphthong has the informal name "long U" or the less informal description of long sound of the letter U.

Common words
Some common words which practise the pronunciation of /juː/ include the following:
 * with "y": you - youth
 * as "u": accumulate - community - computer - Cuba - fuel - future - huge - human - humour - Munich - museum - music - occupy - stimulate - Uganda - ukelele - Ukraine - unicorn - uniform - unique - united - university - usually
 * Exception: recuperate /rɪˈkuːpəreɪt/


 * "u"+magic e: abuse - amuse - commute - confuse - cube - cute - dispute - excuse - huge - mule - refuse - volume
 * as "ue": argue - continue - hue - rescue - value
 * queue /kjuː/
 * as "ew": few - nephew
 * as "iew": interview - review - view

Yod dropping
The sound /j/ is also known as "yod". "Yod dropping" means pronouncing /juː/ as /uː/ as is common in many accents after particular consonants.
 * Yod is often dropped after /d, n, s, t, θ, z/
 * /djuː/ or /duː/: dude - due - dew - duke - dune - introduce - produce - reduce
 * /njuː/ or /nuː/: avenue - knew - new - news - nude - nuke - revenue
 * Exceptions
 * always /njuː/: manual - menu


 * /sjuː/ or /suː/: assume - consumer - pursue - suit - suitable
 * /tjuː/ or /tuː/: attitude - opportunity - stew - student - substitute - tube - Tuesday - tune
 * /θjuː/ or /θuː/: enthusiasm
 * Exception
 * always /θjuː/: Matthew


 * /zjuː/ or /zuː/: presume - resume

Exception:
 * Yod is not dropped after /b, f, g, h, k, m, p, v/
 * /juː/: abuse - confuse - argue - human - cute - amuse - computer - view
 * /uː/ recuperate

Exceptions:
 * There is seldom yod after /dʒ, l, r, ʃ, tʃ, ʒ/
 * /uː/: June, blue, rule, sure, chew, casual
 * /juː/: value, volume
 * /juː/ or /jə/: cellular, evaluate

/jə/
When "u" is unstressed it may sound /jə/ or (according to some dictionaries) /jʊ/. The following examples are all pronounced /jə/ according to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), and some as /jʊ/ according to Cambridge Dictionaries Online (CDO).
 * /jə/ (OALD) or /jʊ/ (CDO): accurate - ambulance - consecutive - formula
 * /jə/ (OALD, CDO): failure - popular - regular