English Highway Podcast

Pronunciation: /w/ vs. /g/ (#0293)

Practice words that and sentences with /g/ and /w/ sounds.

Announcer:

Youre about to listen to an audio lesson from OpenEnglish.com.

Welcome back. My name is Andres Moreno, and Ill be your English
coach for this lesson. My goal is to help you improve your listening and
speaking skills by working on some key pronunciation tools.
Todays lesson examines the difference between words that begin with the
letter g as in the word girl as compared to words that begin with the
letter w as in world.
The g sound occurs in the back of the throat:
girl
While the w sound involves the lip:
world
Lets try the g sound. Repeat after me:
girl
Can you feel it in the back of your throat?
girl
And again:
girl
Good job. Now lets try the w sound. Repeat after me:
world
world
Can you hear the difference?
Lets begin by looking at words that begin with the g sound. Repeat after
me:
go
And again:
go
great
An original Open English production in association with Cl@se.
Copyright FoxyP2 Inc. and Rainbow Heights International LLC

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great
Come on. Focus on that g sound:
great
grow
grow
Good job. Let's keep practicing. Repeat after me:
glasses
glasses
good
good
Way to go. Now lets practice with words that begin with the letter w.
Listen and then repeat after me:
wear
wear
would
And again:
would
wash
wash
Good job. Let's keep practicing. Here's another word:
win
win
well
well
Good job. Now lets try contrasting some word pairs. Repeat after me:
good
would
These two words sound similar, but they're very different.
repeat after me:
An original Open English production in association with Cl@se.
Copyright FoxyP2 Inc. and Rainbow Heights International LLC

Page 2 of 5

Listen and

good
Can you hear that g sound?
good
would
would
That's the w sound:
would
Here's another word pair. Repeat after me:
get
wet
Get has a g sound, and wet begins with the letter w. So repeat after
me:
get
wet
Good job. Here's another example. Give it your best:
gait
wait
Can you hear the difference?
gait
wait
One more time:
gait
wait
Way to go. Here's another example. Let's keep practicing:
guest
west
They're similar but not the same. Repeat after me:

An original Open English production in association with Cl@se.

Copyright FoxyP2 Inc. and Rainbow Heights International LLC

Page 3 of 5

guest
west
girl
world
Good job. Lets end this lesson with a couple of sentences. Repeat after
me:
He is waiting at the gate.
One more time:
He is waiting at the gate.
Waiting starts with w:
waiting
wait
waiting
The word gate starts with a g:
gate
gate
Good job. Here's the sentence once again:
He is waiting at the gate.
Here's another example. Listen and repeat after me:
You would look really good.
You would look really good.
would
It starts with a w:
would
good
It starts with a g:
good
You would look really good.
That was really great! Way to go! Thats the end of this audio lesson.
An original Open English production in association with Cl@se.
Copyright FoxyP2 Inc. and Rainbow Heights International LLC

Page 4 of 5

Thank you for your time and effort. My recommendation is for you to listen
to this lesson as many times as you can because remember, practice
makes perfect!
For additional practice, turn on your computer and go to
OpenEnglish.com. At OpenEnglish, youll find hundreds of interactive
lessons and videos to help you perfect your English.
Accelerate your English today. See you soon.

Additional practice: The g versus w sounds

Words:
girl
world
go
great
grow
glasses
good
wear
would
wash
win
well
waiting
wait
gate
Word pairs:
good - would
get - wet
gait - wait
guest - west
girl - world
Sentences:
He is waiting at the gate.
You would look really good.

An original Open English production in association with Cl@se.

Copyright FoxyP2 Inc. and Rainbow Heights International LLC

Page 5 of 5