IPA reference · consonant
w — labial-velar approximant
A double articulation: the lips round while the tongue body raises toward the soft palate.
How to make the labial-velar approximant
The w of "water". Round the lips and raise the back of the tongue.
English reference points: water, away. If you speak English natively you already produce this sound — the work is recognising it and placing it where the target language wants it.
Languages that use it
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for w, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
Dutch w is labiodental, not labial-velar.
What this means for learners
German and Polish w is /v/, not /w/ — a very frequent misreading.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of w attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol w make?
w is the labial-velar approximant. A double articulation: the lips round while the tongue body raises toward the soft palate. In English you can hear it in: water, away.
How do you pronounce w?
The w of "water". Round the lips and raise the back of the tongue.
Which languages have the labial-velar approximant?
Among the languages covered here: French (oui, “yes”); Japanese (わたし, “I”).
What is the difference between w and ʋ?
Dutch w is labiodental, not labial-velar.