Description of the /W/ sound

When you say /W/, the soft part of the roof of your mouth is raised, your tongue is in a position similar to that assumed in the pronunciation of /U:/ and your lips are forward and rounded. Howeve, /W/ is more rounded when saying words like woo, wood, and war than when saying with, west and we. The /W/ sound is voiced sound.

The /W/ sound is heard in the words wet, twins, winked, sweetly and woman.

Spelling of the /W/ sound

The /W/ sound is spelt in different ways in English.

w	wh	qu (= /kW/)	u (after g)	unusual
sweep	whale	quick	iguana	one
swim	while	squad	guano	once
win	whisky	squish	anguish	bourgeoisie
forward	whistle	quarter	language	choir

Tips

Note that the letter /W/ is silent in the words like wrong, write, wright, wrong , wrap, wrath , answer, sword and wreck. Also wh in words like what, whale, wham.

Sound contrast

/W/ and /j/ sounds

/W/	/j/
woo /wu:/	you /ju:/
warn /w..:n/	yawn /j..:n/
woke /w..k	yoke /j…K/

Assignment

From the words lettered A-D, choose the word that has the same sound as the one represented by the letters underlined.

1. which A. wrong. B. answer. C. wet. D. wrestle

2. suite A. shut. B. shoot C. sweet D. suit.

3. one A. won. B. only. C. fond. D . count

4. use A. lust . B. you C. chew D. truce

5. quick A. aware. B. book. C. fruit. D. slush