IPA phoneme /w/

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /w/ corresponds to the semivowel sound in words like "world", "week" and "water". See also IPA phonetic symbol [w].

Common words
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /w/ include the following

"w"

 * Initial "w". Remember that for simplicity /ɒ/ means /ɒ/, /ɑː/
 * "wa" or "wha"
 * /weɪ/: wait - wake - waste - way - wave
 * /wɔː/: walk - wall - Walter - war - warm - warn
 * /wɒ/: wander - wasp - watch
 * /wɔː/, /wɒ/: water
 * /wɒ/, /wɔː/: want - wash - Washington
 * /wɒ/, /wʌ/: was
 * other: we - wear - week - well - wife - will - win - wish - with - woman - wonder - word - work - world - worry - would


 * "w" at the beginning of a syllable: always - anyway - award - aware - away - Delaware - forward - framework - Hawaii /həˈwaɪiː, həˈwɑːiː/ - network - otherwise - reward - software - Taiwan


 * "w" in the middle of a syllable: between - Dwight - Gwendolyn - Swede - Sweden - sweet - swim - swing - Swiss - Switzerland - switch - tweet - twice - Twitter

"wh"
See also Wikipedia Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩.

Currently in most accents "wh" is pronounced /w/. However in some accents this digraph is pronounced /hw/. In some of those accents "wh" is a single sound, transcribed as [ʍ].
 * Initial "wh". Remember that for simplicity /ɒ/ means /ɒ/, /ɑː/
 * "wha"
 * /weɪ/: whale
 * /wɒ/, /wʌ/: what
 * /wɒ/, /wʌ/, /wə/: whatever
 * other: wheel - when - where - whether - which - while - whisper - white - why


 * "wh" at the beginning of a syllable: anywhere - everywhere - meanwhile

"u"

 * with "g": distinguish - guacamole - Guam - Guatemala - iguana - language - linguistics - Managua - Nicaragua - Paraguay - penguin - Uruguay
 * with "q": consequence - equipment - quality - quarter - question - quick - quite - request - require
 * with "s": persuade - suite
 * with "h": chihuahua /tʃɪˈwɑːwə, tʃɪˈwɑːwɑː/
 * with "j": marijuana /ˌmærəˈwɑːnə/ - San Juan /ˌsæn ˈwɑːn/
 * other: Buenos Aires - Ecuador - Kuala Lumpur /ˈkwɑːlə lʊmˈpʊər/ - Puerto Rico - Venezuela

Other

 * Ouagadougou /ˌwɑːgəˈduːguː/
 * ouija /ˈwiːdʒə/
 * quinoa /ˈkiːnwɑː/

/w/ not written

 * one - once
 * choir /ˈkwaɪər/

Homophones

 * one - won; sweet - suite; wait - weight; waste - waist; ware - wear - where; way - weigh; which - witch; why - Y; wood - would;

No /w/
Many words that have "w" in their spelling don't have /w/ in their pronunciation. This in some cases means there are subtle differences in syllabification. For example "power" is /ˈpaʊ.ər/ and not. Note, however, that the realization of some of these vowels may contain a [w] sound, as in power pronounced [ˈpawɚ]. See IPA phonetic symbol [w]. The pronunciation shown by Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary is shown in square brackets.


 * power: /ˈpaʊər/ [ˈˈpawɚ]
 * rowing: /ˈrəʊɪŋ/ [ˈrowɪŋ]
 * sewage: /ˈsuːɪdʒ/ [ˈsuːwɪʤ]. In this case there is not a /w/ phoneme; however the /uː/ is pronounced as [uw] by most people.

Oddity: Rwanda /ruːˈɑːndə, ruːˈændə/

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
In Spanish there is no contrast between /w/ and /gw/ (to be fair in English there is very little). Therefore some Spanish speakers will insert a /g/ sound before /w/: "water" pronounced as. Others will drop the /g/ in words like "language": instead of  Dropping the  in this case can be regarded as a variant pronunciation rather than a pronunciation error.