Whale or wail? Sounds w and wh; stress
The letters w and wh often make the same sound, /w/. Whale and wail sound the same, but they have different spellings and meanings. Wh words: when, what, where, which, white, wheel, whisper. W words: water, wave, window, west, week, walk. Read them aloud and round your lips for /w/. A prefix is added to the front of a word: re- means again (replay), dis- and un- show the opposite (dislike, unhappy), in- can mean not or inside (incorrect, indoors). When we say these words, the stress stays on the base word, not on the prefix. We show the stress with capital letters: re-PLAY, dis-LIKE, in-DOORS, un-HAP-py. Read the pronunciation page of your book with a grown-up and try the sentence about the white whale.
| w | wh | prefix + base word (stress in capitals) |
|---|---|---|
| water | whale | re-PLAY |
| wave | when | dis-LIKE |
| window | white | in-DOORS |
| west | whisper | un-HAP-py |
| week | wheel | in-cor-RECT |
water, wave, window, west, week. whale, when, white, whisper, wheel.
re-PLAY. dis-LIKE. in-DOORS. un-HAP-py. re-SEND. dis-a-GREE. un-TI-dy. in-cor-RECT.
Sound hunt. The child finds six w or wh words at home or in a book and writes them in two lists: w and wh. Then the child says four prefix words aloud with the stress in capital letters: re-PLAY, dis-LIKE, in-DOORS, un-HAP-py. A grown-up listens and says ‘Yes, the stress is on the base word.’