English pronunciation
How to pronounce V and W in English (vest vs west)
V and W in English are made in completely different ways. For V, rest your top teeth lightly on your lower lip and let your voice buzz through. For W, keep your teeth off your lip: round your lips, raise the back of your tongue, and glide into the vowel — the whole difference between vest and west.
How to say V and W
For V, rest your top teeth lightly on the inside of your lower lip.
Turn your voice on and push air through so it buzzes against your lip. You should be able to hold the start of vine for a second.
For W, take your teeth out of it: round your lips into a small circle, as if to whistle, and raise the back of your tongue towards the back of the roof of your mouth.
With your voice on, let your lips spring open and glide into the vowel. W is that movement from rounded lips into the next sound, as in wine.
Why it’s hard
Many languages have only one sound in this space. German and Russian, for example, have a V but no W, so west comes out as vest. Other learners use a sound halfway between the two — lips close together, no teeth, no rounding — which an English listener can hear as either.
Because the halfway sound feels right from the inside, learners often swap the two in both directions: vet for wet, and wine for vine. The fix is to make the two sounds look different, not just sound different.
Words to practise
These are the pairs PronounceFit uses to train V and W. Watch your mouth in a mirror as you say them: V shows your teeth, W shows rounded lips.
V vs W
- vest / west
- vine / wine
- veil / wail
- vet / wet
- verse / worse
- vary / wary
Common mistakes, and how to catch them
Using V for both
If your top teeth rest on your lower lip and your voice buzzes through, west becomes vest. To catch it, watch in a mirror: for W your top teeth should not touch your lower lip, and your lips should be round.
Using W for both
If your lips round and your teeth stay off your lip for vary, it becomes wary. To catch it, feel for your teeth: for V they rest on your lower lip while your voice buzzes.
Settling on a sound in between
Lips close together with no teeth and no rounding gives a sound that is neither. To catch it, record verse and worse and play them back. If you can’t tell which is which, neither can a listener.
How PronounceFit trains V and W
Ear training first: vest and west, vine and wine play, and you decide whether you heard one word or two. Plenty of learners who are sure they say the two differently find out here that they hear them as one.
Then say both words and see each attempt scored. In your own reading, a W that came out as V is marked on the word itself; open it in Word Coach to hear the reference voice next to yours, get a short tip on the fix, and retry until it turns green.
Read more about each step:
FAQ
Questions about V and W
Why do German speakers say V instead of W?
German writes the V sound with the letter W and has no English-style W, so the familiar sound takes over. The fix is to round your lips and raise the back of your tongue, keeping your teeth off your lower lip.
Do my teeth touch anything for W?
No. For W, round your lips, raise the back of your tongue a little, then let your lips open into the vowel. For V, rest your top teeth lightly on your lower lip and let your voice buzz.
Which words should I practise V and W with?
Pairs where V and W are the only difference: vest / west, vine / wine, vet / wet, verse / worse.
More English sound guides
- TH soundThink, they, three: where your tongue goes, and the slips to S, D and F.
- R vs LRight or light: for one the tip of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, for the other it doesn’t.
- Short I vs long EEBit, beat and bet: three vowels where many languages have one or two.
- B vs VBerry or very: both lips closed, or top teeth on your lower lip.
English pronunciationEvery hard English sound, with the real word pairs the app drills.- All languagesEvery pronunciation guide, one language at a time.
Vest and west, two different words.
Read one English sentence aloud and see which sounds slipped — privately, on your device.