English Pronunciation Practice: V & W

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hello i'm jill at ingvid and today we have  a pronunciation lesson on two consonants  

v and w okay uh now i found that some of my  students um get a bit um confused about these two  

uh sometimes they don't make the difference  between them so i just thought a lesson on  

this would be useful so let's just take one attime and i i will just demonstrate uh how how you  

shape your mouth to produce each letter okay so  the letter v that's v that letter um i don't have  

a board to write it on so the that's the sound of  it i say v that's the letter of the alphabet when  

you say the letter but when when you're saying  it is part of a word the sound is usually just  

so you can see that what i'm  doing is i'm putting my top teeth  

on my bottom lip almost biting into my bottom  lip and making a sound with my vocal cords and

so it's a bit like there's a bit of vibration in  it as well because the vocal cords vibrate and  

like that so that's quite a useful thing to  practice um i i notice with students who don't  

usually pronounce this letter they find it quite  difficult to get a long continuous sound like

and it sounds a bit like a bee buzzing orwasp or something like that some sort of insect  

buzzing around

so don't worry about that but it's quite a useful  exercise to just get used to making the sound of

the like a word like van he was driving a van so  that's what you have to do top teeth on bottom lip  

and get a bit of sound coming  through a bit of vibration

like that okay so that's that letter but let me  also explain the other one that it sometimes gets  

confused with which is w which is that one  w okay you'll see them written down shortly  

because i'll be showing you a list of words  but with w it's the sound of that w is the  

name of the letter in the alphabet but the actual  sound uh the way you shape your mouth for it is  

so you really bring your lips together as  if you're going to kiss somebody or a bit  

i always think it's a bit like a fish going up  to the surface of the water to get a bit of food  

that's floating on the the surface of the water  like that so if you think of a fish doing this  

with its mouths that's the shape for what what  what wha wha like that okay so you can tell  

that the two letters are quite different in the  way you shape your mouth to make the sound okay  

right so i think what we will do now is have  a look at some words containing those letters  

and so let me just get that up on the screen okay  so here is a list of words containing the letter v  

so first of all then let's have a look  and if you'd like to say the word after me  

um to practice it so let's look at the  first one so advertise advertise so  

like that advertise okay if you'd  like to say it after me advertise

advertise okay and then the next one advice  

advice so every time you say this letter you  have to put your top teeth on your bottom lip  

there's no sort of shortcut you have to  do that every time advice add this okay  

and then the next one advise advise say it after  me advise okay and the next one arrive arrive

arrive okay and then avoid uh void okay so i hope  you can actually feel you know you can feel your  

teeth on your bottom lip you need to feel that if  you're not actually looking in a mirror to check  

what shape you're making you can feel it with this  one but but you can feel your teeth on your lip so  

that's what you need to feel when you're saying  this sound okay let's carry on then so next word  

is deliver deliver your term deliver okay and  the next one ever ever okay next one interview

interview okay remember you can also put the  video on pause if you want to stop stop the  

video for you to say it a few more times before  we go on so interview okay and invite invite

okay and the next one over over

and again over

okay next one remove remove you might  find it it's quite difficult sometimes  

to make the contact of your teeth with your  bottom lip but you just have to make yourself  

do it just to get used to it if you're  not used to doing this sound remove remove  

and then we've got words beginning with v which  i think are a little bit easier because you just  

get it at the start of the word you  get it get it over with if you like  

so you can put your teeth on your lip ready  before you make any sound they can see

they can see okay valid valid

and van

van okay right and a few more

ventilation

ventilation

okay venue

venue

and very

very okay good next one victim

victim

view view

next virtue virtue

vision vision

visit

visit okay voice

voice and volunteer volunteer okay sohope that that's a helpful exercise for you  

right so now let's go on to w then here are some  words with w in them so just to remind you it's  

like that what what what like a fish okay

so you really pull your lips together  uh it's called pursing pursing your lips  

like that okay so here we go say it after  me again so always always okay awake awake

and away a way so what happens with some  people depending which country they come from  

uh some people might put a v sound here instead  of a w um i'm i'm not going to do it because that  

would be a bad influence for you but i hear people  saying away but they say it with a v sound instead  

of a w sound so that's why i'm doing this lesson  to to help to clarify which is which okay so a way  

away okay and then we've got the words beginning  with w which should be a bit easier again because  

you can get into the position before you  make a sound so walk walk okay want want

was was wash wash

way way okay and say each  one after me each time so we

we

whether weather

wednesday

wednesday this is a funny word because it looks  like wednesday but it's just pronounced in two  

syllables wednesday wednesday so it's much  shorter than it looks okay and then week week

welcome welcome

well well went went

were were okay good and then now these are spelt  w h but there's no difference really to the sound  

so um i've just grouped them together uh  just you know because it it they all come  

together under that category so these are  all um in fact these are all question words  

it's interesting that all the question  words begin w wh so here we go what

what when

when where where

which which

why y okay and the next set will  

will so that one you have to pull your mouth back  again as soon as you've done the w to get the  

it it so will will okay some of them are  more difficult than others because of having  

to change the shape of your mouth part way  through the word okay next one window window

wish wish

with with okay

wonder wonder

would would

word word

world world

worry worry

would would okay good so i hope that's beengood exercise for you now because i've been rather  

exaggerating um this pronunciation just to  give you a really clear idea of how to do it  

um of course when people are speaking normally  um they're not going to be exaggerating  

in the way i've been doing so what i'm going  to do uh is just to go back over the words  

i'll say them once you don't need to repeat  it after me each one i'll just say them in a  

normal way well normal for me anyway and just the  way i would say it you won't be able to notice  

it so easily but this is the normal way of  saying the words so i'll just go quickly through  

uh the words in a normal way um okay  but hopefully you'll be able to tell  

the difference as i do it okay so  let's do the v first here we go  

advertise advice advise arrive avoid  deliver ever interview invite over remove

vacancy valid than ventilation venue  very victim view virtue vision visit

voice volunteer okay that's  these and then on to the w's

always awake away

walk want was wash way we weather wednesday weak  welcome well went were what when where which why

will window wish with wonder  would word world worry would  

okay right good so now we have some sentences  and what these are is a mixture of v and w so  

you have to be able to switch between the two so  this is quite a sort of acrobatic exercise for  

you now you've got to do both and you've got to  switch okay so let's um let's have a look at these  

so right first one so i'll say it first for  you to listen and watch watch my lips okay so  

we were unsure whether our visit would be  welcome okay do you want to just try that

yourself

okay and i'll say it just once more we were  unsure whether our visit would be welcome  

once more for you

okay right and the next sentence  

i'll say it first we wish this venue  had a window with a view for you

okay and once more we wish this venue had  a window with a view once more for you  

okay right next sentence we  were having a variety of weather

your turn

and again from me we were having  a variety of weather you again

okay good right and then this one which we can  all agree with why won't this virus go away

you

and again from me why won't this virus go away

okay and the next one quite a long  one this okay so i'll do it first  

i wonder why the visitor avoided  walking through the wood your turn

okay me again i wonder why the visitor  avoided walking through the wood your turn

okay good and finally the delivery van  arrived when we were away last week your turn

me again the delivery van arrived  when we were away last week you again

okay right so i hope that's been a useful session  and if this is something you need to work on these  

two consonants or one of them or to make sure you  don't get them mixed up you might want to watch  

this video several times or write things down and  practice them at home yourself in in spare moments  

and i always recommend have a little mirror for  this kind of thing so you can look at yourself  

when you're speaking to check the  shape you're making with your mouth

so that's a good thing to do when  you're trying to pronounce something  

um correctly because the shape of the mouth is  what makes the sound sound the way it does okay  

okay then so i hope that's been a helpful session  and so that's the end of the lesson for today  

uh so um all the best and look forward to seeing  you again soon okay bye for now then bye bye