Voiced labio-velar approximant

Voiced labial–velar approximant In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /w/ corresponds to the semivowel sound in words like "world", "week" and "water". See also IPA phonetic symbol [w].

Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /w/ include the following

"w"

• Initial "w". Remember that for simplicity /ɒ/ means /ɒ/^BrE, /ɑː/^AmE

"wa" or "wha"

/weɪ/: wait - wake - waste - way - wave

/wɔː/: walk - wall - Walter - war - warm - warn

/wɒ/: wander - wasp - watch

/wɔː/, /wɒ/^AmE: water

/wɒ/, /wɔː/^AmE: want - wash - Washington

/wɒ/, /wʌ/^AmE: was

other: we - wear - week - well - wife - will - win - wish - with - woman - wonder - word - work - world - worry - would

• "w" at the beginning of a syllable: always - anyway - award - aware - away - Delaware - forward - framework - Hawaii /həˈwaɪiː, həˈwɑːiː/ - network - otherwise - reward - software - Taiwan

• "w" in the middle of a syllable: between - Dwight - Gwendolyn - Swede - Sweden - sweet - swim - swing - Swiss - Switzerland - switch - tweet - twice - Twitter

"wh"

See also Wikipedia Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩.

Currently in most accents "wh" is pronounced /w/. However in some accents this digraph is pronounced /hw/. In some of those accents "wh" is a single sound, transcribed as [ʍ].

• Initial "wh". Remember that for simplicity /ɒ/ means /ɒ/^BrE, /ɑː/^AmE

"wha"

/weɪ/: whale

/wɒ/, /wʌ/^AmE: what

/wɒ/, /wʌ/,^AmE /wə/^AmE: whatever

other: wheel - when - where - whether - which - while - whisper - white - why

• "wh" at the beginning of a syllable: anywhere - everywhere - meanwhile

"u"

with “g": distinguish - guacamole - Guam - Guatemala - iguana - language - linguistics - Managua - Nicaragua - Paraguay - penguin - Uruguay

with "q": consequence - equipment - quality - quarter - question - quick - quite - request - require

with "s": persuade - suite

with "h": chihuahua /tʃɪˈwɑːwə^BrE, tʃɪˈwɑːwɑː^AmE/

with "j": marijuana /mærəˈwɑːnə/ - San Juan /sæn ˈwɑːn/

other: Buenos Aires - Ecuador - Kuala Lumpur /ˈkwɑːlə lʊmˈpʊər/ - Puerto Rico - Venezuela

Other

• Ouagadougou /wɑːgəˈduːguː/
• ouija /ˈwiːdʒə/
• quinoa /ˈkiːnwɑː/

/w/ not written

• one - once
• choir /ˈkwaɪər/

Homophones

• one - won; sweet - suite; wait - weight; waste - waist; ware - wear - where; way - weigh; which - witch; why - Y; wood - would;

No /w/

Many words that have "w" in their spelling don't have /w/ in their pronunciation. This in some cases means there are subtle differences in syllabification. For example "power" is /ˈpaʊ.ər/ and not /ˈpɑː.wər/. Note, however, that the realization of some of these vowels may contain a [w] sound, as in power pronounced [ˈpawɚ]. See IPA phonetic symbol [w]. The pronunciation shown by Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary is shown in square brackets.

• power: /ˈpaʊər/ [ˈˈpawɚ]
• rowing: /ˈrəʊɪŋ/ [ˈrowɪŋ]
• sewage: /ˈsuːɪdʒ/ [ˈsuːwɪʤ]. In this case there is not a /w/ phoneme; however the /uː/ is pronounced as [uw] by most people.

Oddity: Rwanda /ruːˈɑːndə, ruːˈændə/

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish

In Spanish there is no contrast between /w/ and /gw/ (to be fair in English there is very little). Therefore some Spanish speakers will insert a /g/ sound before /w/: "water" pronounced as */ˈgwɔːtər/. Others will drop the /g/ in words like "language": /ˈlæŋwɪdʒ/ instead of /ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ/. Dropping the /g/ in this case can be regarded as a variant pronunciation rather than a pronunciation error.