The word ‘answer’ is derived from the Old English ‘andswaru’ meaning a response or a reply to a question. Two other words in which you find an unpronounced ‘w’ are ‘sword’ and ‘answer’. Around the same time, some ‘wh’ words followed by a round vowel were reduced to /h/ even though they continued to be spelled ‘wh’ (e.g., who, whom). Consequently, some words which were historically pronounced as /h/ came to be written as ‘wh’ (e.g., whole). In the Middle English period when rounded vowels were introduced (e.g., /o/ and /u/), there was a tendency for the sound /h/ to sound like /hw/. The ‘w’ is also unpronounced in a very small number of words when the next letter is ‘h’ (who, whom, whose, whole). When you put your hands up on either side of your body as if you are stopping two people from fighting it looks a little like a ‘w’. A quirky strategy I use for my students to help remember this word is that the ‘w’ stops the ‘t’ and ‘o’ from fighting. The ‘w’ in two shows its connection to other words meaning two – twin, twice, twenty (two lots of 10), twofold, twelve (10 plus two more) and between (in the middle of two). This word comes from the Old English ‘twa’ and twegen (then twain), in which the ‘w’ was pronounced. The ‘w’ is also unpronounced in the word ‘two’. For example: The wrestler wrapped his wrist around the wriggling ……. Although we have retained the ‘wr’ spelling in English, we stopped pronouncing the ‘w’ around the 1450s to 1700s, except in some dialects.Ī useful teaching strategy is to have students research words containing ‘wr’ and then to combine the most frequently occurring words into a story picture. The ‘w’ in the ‘wr’ used to be pronounced.
One activity you could do with students is to discuss how the ‘wr’ words relate to twisting or distorting. To ‘wrap’ is to twist paper, your ‘wrist’ can twist, ‘writing’ is twisting the shape of letters, to ‘wreck’ is to distort or twist an item out of shape. These words usually refer to twisting or distorting. The challenge is to help students remember those words.įirst it is useful to have an understanding of the etymology of the words containing the unpronounced ‘w’.Īn unpronounced ‘w’ is most commonly followed by the letter ‘r’ (wrap, wrist, wrestle, write, wring). There are relatively few words in English which contain an unpronounced ‘w’ (see attached image). On-line Narrative Writing Workshop (Parents).On-line Persuasive Writing Workshop (Parents).On-line Multisensory Reading Level 3 Workshop (Parents).On-line Multisensory Reading Level 2 Workshop (Parents).Online Multisensory Reading Level 1 Workshop (Parents).On-line Multisensory Reading Level 4 Workshop.On-line Multisensory Reading Level 3 Workshop.On-line Multisensory Reading Level 2 Workshop.On-line Multisensory Reading Level 1 Workshop.NZ Multisensory Literacy Training Workshop.
Grapheme, Vocabulary & Phonological Awareness Development.
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