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 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).
wh can only begin a morpheme, and so most examples occur at the beginning of a word, excepting awhîle. American speakers, and some British 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, whíppet, whéther if (= wéather sky).
In who (*hû), whôle and whoôping-cough, the w is redundant, and wh is pronounced h.
Like qu, w has an effect on a following a, making it sound like ó in hót: ẁas, ẁhat, ẁant, ẁash, ẁander or like ŏ in ŏught, especially before r, l and ll: wårm, wåll, wåltz, Wårner - and in wåter - although not always; 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, - 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 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) it is simpler to put an accent on it and pretend it is 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 the w pronounced as if it were an r, in one 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).
Polish w 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.