Words That Rhyme With You
Perfect rhymes for you grouped by syllable, why one sound has so many spellings, the stress traps in words like value and venue, and near rhymes for songs.
Any word that ends on a stressed “oo” vowel, as you does, rhymes with it: blue, true, new, shoe and two are the everyday examples. Only the sound matters, and that sound is written in many ways (-ue, -ew, -oe, -o, -wo), so a list sorted by spelling misses most of the matches.
Pronunciations: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. About the data
Perfect rhymes for you, by syllable
The Wikipedia article on perfect and imperfect rhymes says the stressed vowel sound in both words “must be identical, as well as any subsequent sounds.” You is a bare vowel: a “y” glide, then “oo”, and nothing after it. So a perfect rhyme is any word that ends on a stressed “oo”, whatever consonants come before it. Words are grouped here by how many syllables they have.
One syllable
- blue
- true
- new
- shoe
- two
- through
- who
- too
- do
- few
- knew
- grew
- threw
- flew
- drew
- crew
- brew
- chew
- stew
- screw
- clue
- glue
- cue
- queue
- due
- hue
- rue
- sue
- view
- zoo
- boo
- moo
- woo
- coo
- pew
- phew
- spew
- coup
- flu
- gnu
- lieu
- ooh
Two syllables
- anew
- renew
- review
- undo
- redo
- untrue
- undue
- adieu
- ado
- taboo
- tattoo
- bamboo
- shampoo
- canoe
- pursue
- ensue
- subdue
- accrue
- debut
- kazoo
Three syllables and longer
- overdue
- kangaroo
- hullabaloo
- kalamazoo
- barbecue
- cockatoo
Longer matches are scarce. Most long words that end in this sound put the main stress earlier in the word, which leads to the trap in the next section.
Two notes on the lists above:
- New and knew each have two pronunciations in the dictionary, one with a “y” glide before the vowel and one without it. Either way they rhyme with you, because a rhyme starts at the vowel and the consonants before it are free to differ.
- Ewe and yew are left out on purpose. They are pronounced exactly like you, so using them repeats the word instead of rhyming with it.
Same ending, wrong stress: value, venue and argue
Some lists offer value, venue, virtue, argue, continue and nephew as rhymes for you. They end in the right sound, but it is unstressed. The dictionary marks the stress on an earlier syllable (VAL-yoo, VEN-yoo, AR-gyoo), and the last syllable is a light “yoo” that the voice drops. Say blue and value one after the other and you can hear that blue lands and value trails off.
The same applies to into and unto. These are weak rhymes. They can work in the middle of a line or in a loose lyric, but at a line end they will not close a rhyme the way blue does. A few words sit between the two groups: cashew, avenue, statue, preview and interview have the main stress early and a lighter, secondary stress on the last syllable. They are usable, particularly when sung, but softer than the one-syllable matches.
One sound, many spellings: -oo, -ew, -ue and -o
The “oo” in you is among the most variably spelled sounds in English. The table groups the perfect rhymes above by how the ending is written.
| How the ending is written | Words that rhyme with you |
|---|---|
| -oo | zoo, boo, taboo, bamboo, shampoo, kangaroo |
| -ew | new, few, grew, knew, view, review |
| -ue | blue, true, glue, clue, due, pursue |
| -o | do, undo |
| -oe | shoe, canoe |
| -wo | two |
| -ough | through |
| -ho | who |
| -ieu | lieu, adieu |
| -u | flu, gnu |
The reverse also happens: some of the same letter patterns stand for a different sound, and the words then do not rhyme with you.
- -o: do rhymes with you, but go, no and so have an “oh” vowel.
- -oe: shoe and canoe rhyme with you, but toe and hoe do not.
- -ew: new and grew rhyme with you, but sew sounds like so.
- -ough: through rhymes with you. Though has the “oh” vowel, and tough ends in an “f” sound.
So shoe and toe look like a pair and are not, while shoe and through look nothing alike and are a perfect rhyme. A practical check is to say both words aloud and listen to the vowel, ignoring the letters. The rhyme checker does the same comparison from the dictionary’s pronunciations. Love has the opposite problem, one spelling pattern with three sounds, covered in words that rhyme with love.
Near rhymes for you
You has so many perfect rhymes that you rarely need near ones for sound alone. Near rhymes are useful when meaning matters more, or when you want to avoid the most expected word. The most useful kind keeps the “oo” vowel and adds a consonant after it, so the vowel matches but the ending does not. The guide to perfect and slant rhyme explains the terms.
- moon
- soon
- noon
- room
- tune
- cool
- food
- rude
- youth
- truth
- proof
- soup
- group
- lose
- choose
- move
- prove
Because you ends on an open vowel, the held note of a sung line falls on the sound these words share. Whether that is enough to feel like a rhyme is an editorial judgement and varies by song. Here is an original example of each:
Nothing I say will ever do
unless the words come from you. (perfect)
I kept the porch light on till noon,
still thinking of you. (near)
Because the perfect list is so long, the other risk is the predictable pick. Blue, true and you are among the first words many writers reach for. Less worn alternatives from the lists above include anew, undo, view, pursue and adieu. For other words, the rhyme finder lists perfect and near rhymes with filters for syllables and endings, and the rhyming words list and home page cover other common sounds.
Word lists were generated with this site’s rhyme engine from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary and then edited by hand. The lists cover the common words and are not exhaustive. Names and abbreviations are omitted, and dictionaries differ on pronunciation variants and stress.