In this article, we’re going to learn how to pronounce the “w” sound correctly. While many non-native speakers find it challenging, learning how to properly pronounce this consonant sound can make pronunciation much simpler.
This sound can be created by rounding the lips to produce an open O sound, much like an O sound but with slightly less emphasis. Practice making this sound in front of a mirror to perfect it.
The W sound
To produce this sound, raise your tongue slightly back and up while simultaneously letting air through your mouth and vibrating your vocal cords. To achieve a satisfactory /w/ sound, position it slightly back-and-up while breathing through your mouth while vibrating your vocal chords.
Diphthongs, which combine two vowels quickly one after another, can be difficult to master but you can learn it with practice and help your child master it with visual cues like pointing towards lips when making this sound.
Mastery of the /w/ sound by age two is vitally important; if your child struggles to consistently produce this sound or substitutes another one instead, now may be a good time to consult a speech-language pathologist about improving their articulation.
The Y sound
The Y sound is a voiced, palatal glide consonant with an identical pronunciation as that used in “boo” but distinguished by an upward rise of the tongue front-mid against the roof of your mouth.
The letter Y is often found at the end of words with multiple syllables, although not in single syllable ones. This sounds similar to English ‘fun’ but can also be pronounced as an i – like in is eg: Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von), Beddgelert (beth-gel-airt), Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris), and Felindre (veh-lin-dray).
Listening to native Welsh speakers for help pronouncing the Y sound correctly may prove challenging at first, but once mastered it will quickly become second nature.
The Z sound
The “Z/” sound is a voiced alveolar sibilant created by directing airflow with your tongue towards the sharp edge of clenched teeth.
There are a few words containing this sound that may be difficult to pronounce at first, but with practice you will soon identify its pronunciation and improve your pronunciation. To assist with this sound we have put together a list of common words with this sound and provided videos showing you their pronunciation as well as an opportunity for you to record yourself repeating each word and compare your recording against our model recordings.
The Z sound is relatively rare in English, yet can be found in many other languages. It’s considered an uncommon voiced dental or alveolar sibilant sound; only approximately 28% of world languages contain it as the sole phoneme.
The H sound
The /h/ sound is a voiceless glottal fricative sound produced by vocal cord position, often represented as “g” as in garden.
H sounds may sometimes be silently pronounced; for instance, words such as ‘hooray’ and ‘happy’ use this technique; otherwise they should be pronounced normally.
Consonants that begin with “c” or “z”, such as in “sure” and “sugar”, typically follow vowels when spoken in English, such as in’sure” and’sugar”. C/z are not used as allophones for these consonants and don’t appear in syllable coda of English words.
The H sound can be an enjoyable letter to teach and pronounce; most students can master its pronunciation after some practice. Studying it will also help your students pronounce many other sounds in English more accurately. Try adding fun activities with this sound into your lessons so they become even more enjoyable; such as having students fog up a glass of water or mirror to produce the H sound!
