The sound in "wit"

/w/

/w/ is an interesting sound, because you need to do two different things with your mouth. First of all, you need to make lips round, as if you are getting ready to kiss someone. Next, you need to put the back of your tongue close to the roof of your mouth, almost as if you are going to say g, but DON'T touch the top of your mouth. You must do both of these things at the same time. Use your voice. /w/ is a voiced sound.

Be careful that you do not confuse /w/ with /r/. When you say /w/, your tongue is further back in your mouth and the back of it is close to the top of your mouth. When you say /r/, your tongue is a little bit more towards the front of your mouth, and the tip of your tongue is pointed towards the top of your mouth.

Watch a video clip with the /w/ sound! (This video will launch a separate video viewer to play it. Make sure you have a plug-in for video clips.)

• 'wow' video clip (200 K MPEG file)

Now let's listen to some sounds!

/w/ sounds:

• wit
• what
• where