W (letter)

W is the twenty-third letter of the English alphabet. Its name is double-U, even though in most writing it more closely resembles a double V.

Use in English

w is a blowing sound. The lips do not touch and the teeth are not involved. Some foreign learners find it hard to distinguish from v, in which the upper teeth touch the lower lip (compare wét and vét: the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes). w is u as a consonant: the position of the lips is the same: wíll, whích, whére, whŷ, wíth, wín, vieŵing, deŵy, flôwing, sewing machine = sôwing seed, wént, awây, wêek, wók, want, awãre, ẁash, Wílliam, ẁhat (*wót).

i before e except after c - and usually except after w, too: wèigh, wèight, wêir, wêird, but wìêld (and sêize, Shêila, Nêil and Kêith).

wh can only begin a morpheme, and so most examples occur at the beginning of a word, excepting awhîle.

American speakers, and some British (especially Scottish) speakers, pronounce wh as if it were hw - but most BrE speakers do not distinguish it from simple w: whŷ, whére, whén, whích, what, whísper, whím, whíp, whíppet, whéther if (= wéather sky).

In who (*hû), whôle and whoôping-cough, it is the w that is redundant, and wh is pronounced as a mere h.

Like qu, w has an effect on a following a, making it sound like ó in hót (in British English: in American, there is the usual à sound): ẁas, ẁhat, ẁant, ẁash, ẁander or like ŏ in ŏught, especially before r, l and ll: wårm, wåll, wåltz, Wårner - and in wåter; however, in the onomatopoeic words whám, wháck, wág and in wágon, the á is as usual.

w can also affect a following o, making it sound like ú: wòrry, wònder, wòn, or a following or, making it sound like ër: wörd, wörk; thus wó- is rare and informal: wónky.

w is redundant initially before r: wrîte, wríng neck (= ríng noise, round), wróng, wríst, wréstle (*réssəl) and in awrŷ (*ərŷ: a as schwa, not the åw sound).

Final w is silent, unless the next word begins with a vowel: compare flôw, silent w, with flôw ón where the w is heard as in flôwing.

w is also silent in swŏrd (*sŏrd), ānswer (*ānser) and in tŵo 2 (= toô also, much) where, though historically inaccurate (cf. twîce, twâin) one can put an accent on it and treat it as part of the vowel.

eŵ is normally pronounced yû, but not when it would produce an ugly clash: Ándreŵ (*Androô, not -ryû), Leŵis (*Loôwis, not Lyoô-). The w retains its consonant sound before a vowel: vieŵ, neŵ, feŵer, jeŵel, eŵe, eŵer, but ew can of course be two separate sounds in two separate syllables, with the w as consonant: rewård, bewãre, påwing, dråwing. These last two are often heard with an r pronounced in place of the w, in the first case *drŏring, and in the other sounding like pŏring looking and pŏuring out - but this pronunciation is regarded as uneducated.

Invisible w occurs after u in Jóshua (*Jóshûwə), and before -ing in words like gôing (which rhymes with flôwing), doing and cûeing (which rhyme with vieŵing and heŵing).

In English, Polish w always sounds like f: Krácow (-óff), Szymanówski (*Shimmanóffsky), Zbígniew (-nyéff).

As w is silent before a consonant, it cannot begin clusters, and it can only be doubled accidentally, and very unusually, as in the surname Låwwell.

See also

• Spelling pronunciation
• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing