/w/

The /w/: rounded lips that open

The /w/ is made by rounding your lips tightly and opening them into the following vowel, with the voice vibrating. It's a sound of movement, not a fixed position. Beyond appearing in words, it also links: natives slip it in between a rounded vowel and the next one.

How it's made

• 👄 Mouth: lips tightly rounded at the start, opening immediately.
• 👅 Tongue: back and high, as for /u/.
• 🔊 Voice: voiced and brief — it's a glide, you don't hold it.

You hear it in: we · water · win · away · go on → /ɡoʊ wɑn/

⚠️ The typical Spanish-speaker mistake: starting with the g of Spanish güe — water said as guater — or opening the lips too early and losing the rounding.

By the end you'll be able to: produce the /w/ from the rounding, and use it to link words as in go on.