Hadar Shemesh breaks down the V and W sounds in American English. V uses your bottom lip against your top teeth; W rounds your lips and pulls your tongue back. Practice with minimal pairs like wine and vine, or wet and vet.
Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is your how to Pronounce Friday. And today we are going to focus on one of the sounds in American English. I'm going to teach you how to pronounce it and then we'll practice it together. Are you ready? Warm up your tongue because this is going to be fun. Let's get started.
Today we're going to talk about how to pronounce the V as in vet versus the W, as in wet V and W. V versus W. Some speakers tend to confuse those two sounds and then use a W when they need to use a V and vice versa. And some people just struggle with pronouncing one of those sounds. So today we're going to learn how to pronounce each of them and also how not to confuse them, which is sometimes more important because, okay, I know how to pronounce it, but how do I make sure that I don't mispronounce it when speaking? Because in practice it's all great, but then in real speech, totally different thing. So let's begin with the difference between those two sounds. Now, both sounds are formed with the lips. Okay? The W is produced as the lips go forward and the tongue pulls back a bit. W pushes down W, W. And the V sound is created by bringing the bottom lip to touch the top teeth. You're releasing air with sound. So the vocal cords are vibrating and creating this friction sound, which is the V as in the word very vicious and seven. Now let's practice it in words. The V sound. First, you want to feel vibrations. Notice that it's just like the F sound, F V. Only that the voice is activated, creating this new sound, the V. Very. When you pronounce the W sound, you want to make sure that nothing touches the lips. The lips move quickly closer. You need to use the muscles here. So if you don't tend to round your lips a lot in your native tongue, you definitely want to do some lip push ups and, you know, strengthen the muscles here so it's easier for you to pronounce this sound. W. W. The lips don't touch anything. W. Why we and when. And yes, when you have an H after the W, it is pronounced with a regular W sound. Some people add this H sound, this H sound when pronouncing the W in WH spelling patterns like when and why. But I highly recommend you to keep it simple and just pronounce the W sound unless you want to sound really, really sophisticated. Now, while this may be A little easier for you. So you know what to do for each word. It gets tricky when it comes to phrases. For example, the phrase very well. Try saying it very well. Probably, if you tend to confuse these two sounds, something like very well comes out. Right?
Right.
Am I right? Very well or very well? Maybe two V's or two W's. Or perhaps you're just mixing the two things and saying something like very well instead of very well. So start. Make sure that for the V. And usually when you have a V in the spelling, it means that you do bring the bottom lip to touch the top teeth. Usually very, very. And then for the W, make sure nothing touches very well. So always use words in context, because when you use them separately, it's all bells and whistles. And then whistles, by the way, with a W. And then when you need to use it in a sentence, you always go back to old habits unless you become hyper aware. Aware with a W. Hyper aware of the sound, making sure that you don't mispronounce it. So again, I'm doing very well, thank you. Very well. White windows. Round your lips. Nothing touching. White windows. Vicious wedding. Vicious wedding. Vibrations. Vicious wedding. Go slowly here. Viking warriors. Yeah, I know. I added a few R's in there just for fun. Viking warriors. Warriors. Viking warriors. Save the world. Save the world. Save the world.
Right.
We want to make sure that the bottom lip touches the top teeth and then a th sound and then a W sound. Okay? So practice it in words, then practice it in phrases. And then to make sure that you're actually using it in real speech. Speech when you actually speak. Then either record yourself, okay. And listen to the recording and only focus on the things that we talked about, the substitution of the W and the V. Or speak to yourself and make a point of using all the words that you practiced. Okay. Notice in particular, words that have both W and V's together and even more specifically, V's and W's connected, like of which.
Right.
When you need to shift from the V to the W, of which, this is where it blends in. And then you usually drop one sound, like a which or of which. Of which. Right. And then merging the two sounds, you have to make this distinction. Now let's practice it in minimal pairs. Words that are almost the same except this one sound and that one sound changes the meaning. While vile. West. Vest. Wet. Vet, Wine. Vine. Okay, so go ahead and practice. Make a list of words that you use on a regular basis with V's and W's, and make sure that you don't mispronounce them. It's all about being focused and knowing what you're doing. And also about being cool with making mistakes, kind of. Because that's the only way to learn. You know that. Okay.
Okay. That was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like the podcast, then consider subscribing to the podcast. And if you feel really crazy, you can even rate and review the podcast. And you can find me at Hadar Accentsway on Instagram, where you can DM me and ask, or all the crazy, fancy, confusing words that you'd like to know how to pronounce. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you next time.
