UE (cue) Sound Word List
The /ue/ sound, often called the long-u sound, is one of five sounds that are named by the name of a single vowel letter. The letters are a, e, i, o, and u. This class of vowel sounds has many spelling options. In the case of the /ue/ sound, there are only four spellings, and none are all that common in one-syllable words.
Of the 7,000 words in the database constructed from a popular children’s dictionary, 21 of them are one-syllable words in which the vowel sound is /ue/. The various spellings of the /ue/ sound are "ue", "u-e", "u", and "ew".
None of the /ue/ spellings are commonly seen in one-syllable words but, as noted on the list page, young readers should be taught to try the /ue/ sound first when encountering the /ue/ spellings. That is because the more likely sound of those spellings is the /oo/ sound, and it is relatively easy to make the oral shift from /ue/ to /oo/, so they will usually end up at the correct sound. Going the other way, from /oo/ to /ue/, is a more difficult transition. This is a handy list of words to choose from when making that point.
Also, the "u" spelling of the /ue/ sound occurs in one-syllable words like cued or fused where the "ed" ending should be treated as a digraph for the /d/ or /t/ sound, leaving only the letter "u" to represent the /ue/ sound.
