Trigraph (3 letters, 1 sound)

The "ure" sound — /jʊr/

As in pure. Tap play to hear the sound, see the mouth shape, and hear 10 example words.

pure — keyword picture for the ure sound
Mouth shape guide — grapheme “ure”, phoneme /jʊr/, as in “pure”

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Grapheme — the letters

ure

What a child sees written down and writes by hand.

Phoneme — the sound

/jʊr/

What a child hears and says out loud — written in IPA, the standard notation for sounds (not letter names).

Mouth shape

'y' + 'oo', then curl the tongue back for 'r'

Gesture

Give a thumbs up for something pure and clean, saying ure-ure-ure

Words to read now

Every letter in these has been taught by this point in the teaching order, so your child can sound them out.

  • pureaccent differs
  • cureaccent differs
  • furyaccent differs
  • curesaccent differs

Words to listen for the sound

You say these, your child listens for /jʊr/. They use letters or spellings not taught yet, so they’re not for reading.

  • secureaccent differs
  • impureaccent differs
  • manicureaccent differs
  • curiousaccent differs
  • furiousaccent differs
  • muralaccent differs

Teach the “ure” sound: free printables

Two free PDFs made for this sound. Print them, or use the full lesson online with audio and games.

▶ Start the full “ure” lesson (audio + games) →

How to teach the “ure” sound

  1. Hear it first. Tap Play three times. Have your child watch your mouth while you copy the sound — no letter name yet, just the pure phoneme /jʊr/.
  2. Do the gesture. Give a thumbs up for something pure and clean, saying ure-ure-ure— kids remember sounds 2× faster when there’s a physical action attached.
  3. Find it in words. Say a few example words aloud slowly, stretching the /jʊr/ sound: “p–u–r–e”.
  4. Spot it around the house. “Can you find something that starts with /jʊr/?” Aim for 3 wins in a row before stopping.

Related sounds in this unit

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  • 92 step-by-step lessons, SATPIN first
  • Big flashcards to show your child
  • Games, checkpoints and progress for every sound

For little ones (2–6) there’s also our sound-play game on iPhone & iPad and Android.