Pronunciation of W

Explanation

Quick Answer

The letter wis used in words that Spanish has borrowed, and sometimes adapted, from other languages. It has two basic pronunciations:

Approximately like the English letter w in words such as water polo or Hawaii. Compare the sound of w in those English words and their Spanish translations, waterpoloand Hawái.

Approximately like the English letter b. For example: wolframio(wolfram) or kuwaití(Kuwaiti).

The Sound of the Letter “W”

“W” Is a Consonant

The letter w is considered a consonant by native Spanish speakers, even if it’s sometimes very close to the sound of the vowel u. It represents the Spanish consonant sound, or phoneme, /w/. When a consonant sound is uttered, the flow of air out of the mouth is partially or completely blocked at some point.

What's This Letter's Name?

You will likely hear the letter w called a number of different names. In Latin America, it is often called ve doble, doble ve, or doble u, whereas the name used in Spain is uve dobleor, less frequently, doble uve.

Loanwords or Borrowings

The Spanish words that contain the letter w are loanwords or borrowings. These are the terms linguists use to refer to words that one language takes from another language.

For example, Spanish takes most of its words with a w directly from English—such as sándwich(sandwich) or wéstern(western, as in the movie)—with minimal adaptation.

Once the foreign word has established itself in the new language, it sometimes evolves to form a new word in the second language. One such example in Spanish is sandwichera(sandwich maker). In these cases, the pronunciation of w stays the same.

Three Ways to Pronounce “W” in Spanish

1: Like the English “W”

Pronounce the w like the English w in wait or always if it’s a word Spanish has borrowed directly from English, such as whisky(whiskey).

Note that some Spanish native speakers utter a gsound before a w, so they may pronounce whisky as /gwíski/ rather than /wíski/. In fact, a completely adapted alternative spelling güisquiis also accepted in this case, although it's not very common.

The letter w is also used for words containing the /w/ sound that are derived from languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet. Some examples of this include wasabi(wasabi), borrowed from Japanese, or taekwondo(tae kwon do), a Korean word.

2: Like the English “B”

Pronounce the w like the English b in best or cardboard if it’s a word Spanish has borrowed or adapted from German and other related Central European languages (Polish, Dutch, etc.), for example: Wagner(Wagner) or wagneriano(Wagnerian).

This is also the pronunciation for words where w is either preceded or followed by a /u/ sound. For example: kuwaití(Kuwaiti) is usually pronounced /kuβaití/, and hollywoodiense(Hollywood, used as an adjective) is often pronounced /xoliβuðiénse/.

3: Like It’s Pronounced in Its Original Language

If the word is not fully adapted and it still feels foreign to Spanish native speakers, the pronunciation of the word is considered uncharted territory. In this case, if you know how to pronounce the word in its language of origin, you’re advised to use that.

Examples

Let’s look at some examples of words containing the letter w in different word positions and letter combinations.

Spanish	English	Position-Combination
washingtoniano	Washingtonian	beginning of word + vowel
web	Web	beginning of word + vowel
windsurfista	windsurfer	beginning of word + vowel
wok	wok	beginning of word + vowel
Wuhan	Wuhan	beginning of word + vowel
kiwi	kiwi	inside word + between vowels
Kuwait	Kuwait	inside word + between vowels
taiwanés	Taiwanese	inside word + between vowels
hawaiano	Hawaiian	inside word + beginning of syllable
sandwichería	sandwich bar	inside word + beginning of syllable
software	software	inside word + beginning of syllable
newton	newton	inside word + end of syllable
bungalow	bungalow	end of word