Do you pronounce whale/wail the same?

Question

I´ve heard some people pronounced whale as hwale

Answer 1

i pronounce them slightly differently....

my flat mates think im weird now because i just spent ten minuites goin whale, wail, whale, wail!

i spose mine is more of a w-hale

Answer 2

Quietwalk is right, and if you don't believe it, try putting your hand in front of your mouth (quite close, but not touching) and say the two words, one after the other, several times. I bet you will find that there is a small puff of air when you say "whale" that is not there when you say "wail".

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P.S. After reading some other comments:

In the fun of talking about stuff on here, it is sometimes easy to forget that a lot of people asking questions want practical advice. I've been guilty of that in this case.

I can't really tell if this question is from a native or non-native English speaker, but for sure if you are a non-native speaker, my first answer to the question (above) is irrelevant to what you really want to know. The fact is, except in Scottish and Irish English and some other regional dialects, you can't HEAR the difference between whale / wail, and you should NOT try to pronounce the distinction when you speak. I'm a native speaker of American English, and like many others, I make a completely unconscious distinction between words like "whale / wale", "which / witch", "where / wear", etc. But you can't hear it, and even I would never have known about it if a linguistics professor had not invited me to try the "breath on the hand" experiment. So in your real life English pronunciation, follow what most of the other people are saying here and pronounce the words exactly the same.

Oh, and it is true that there are dialects where the merger of the two sounds is so complete that the additional puff of air might not be there. I should have mentioned that before as well.

Answer 3

Regina, the word whale has what is called an aspirated sound at the very beginning. This means that a slight gust of air must exit the mouth when pronouncing the wh of whale. Wail does not in standard American English have the aspiration. This sound is what distinguishes one from the other. The aspirated sound is the same as the wh in where, why, when, and what. It should be strong enough that, when a small strip of paper is dangled before the mouth, the wh aspiration will make it move sharply.

I have taught English as a second language. My wife, an ex-English teacher of 25 years in high school and community college, agrees with me completely. To anyone and everyone here who believes otherwise, you don't know your own language.

Answer 4

I say them the same, but some people do say them differently.

And, no offense to Quietwalker and obro, but I am a linguist with a Master's degree and a TESOL Certificate, and also a teacher of English as a Second Language, and I don't make a different sound at the beginning of these words. It's not a feature of all dialects of English, just some of them. Whether or not you make a difference in the pronunciation of these words depends on where you grew up. Quietwalker and obro, perhaps you are speakers of British English? Or perhaps you are from another part of the United States than the part I am from?

It's also technically incorrect to label this as aspiration, since aspiration is a characteristic of stop consonants, not approximants like the "w" sound. The sound in question is a voiceless labial-velar approximant, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as an upside-down "w". The classic pair of words to contrast the voiced labial-velar approximant, "w", and its voiceless counterpart is "which witch".

Answer 5

At present, in most of the United States they would be pronounced the same.

The 'wh" in whale, what, where, why, etc was at one time, and still is in many places in the UK and Ireland, pronounced with a slight aspiration. The speaker exhales lightly while forming the "w" with the lips.

Answer 6

yes they are pronounced the same he only reasons somebody might pronounce it differently would be either because they come from a different area or when they were younger someone told them that was the way to pronounce it

Answer 7

Many people pronounce them the same; however, according the the actual rules of diction, when the 'h' is present, as in the word, "whale" one does actually aspirate the 'h'.

Answer 8

a million. Aaron (ah-run), Erin (eh-rin) i understand 2 Erin's and 3 Aaron's that each and one and all pronounce their names this way. 2. I pronounce Alan and Ellen the comparable i've got purely met human beings or heard of those that pronounce them each and all of the comparable way. 3. Callie and Kelly (kal-ee), Kali (kar-lee) i understand 2 Kali's who say their call like Carly. i'm from Australia. ~ A ~

Answer 9

I say it slightly different. Whale is a bit breathier than wail.

Answer 10

theyre suposed to be the same. but i pronounce `wail` a lil bit different...it just depends on how youre brot up to pronounce it. my mom was so mad when i didnt say it rite. but thats just the way i say it. it like asking you ho do you say `adeiu` or however you spell it. i pronounce it as `a - jew` instead of `a - dew`.