Mind Your Vs and Ws

English has V sounds and W sounds. But some languages only have one or the other. If your native language is missing one of these sounds, you need to learn it. Otherwise we won’t know if you want to say “wet” or “vet”. To help you practice, I wrote this poem:

Mind Your Vs and Ws

Our teacher is a vampire,

He wobbles when he walks

His voice is kind of funny

But we like the way he talks.

“I want to drink your blood,” he says,

“It’s so invigorating.”

But he says ‘vant’ instead of ‘want’

And so ‘inwigerating’.

“Mind your Vs and Ws,” 

We tell him with regret,

“It’s ‘while’ and ‘went’ and ‘west’ and ‘wary’

And ‘whale’ and ‘worse’ and ‘wet’.”

“Just so!” he says, “I see, I see,

I’ll get them right I bet:

It’s ‘vile’ and ‘vent’ and ‘vest’ and ‘vary’

And ‘veil’ and ‘verse’ and ‘vet’.”

“No!” We shout, and laugh and yell

And act like we will riot

Until he shows his shiny fangs—

And then—like graves—we’re quiet.

© 2024 Barry Kahn

Permission is hereby granted to use this poem for educational purposes only with attribution to the author. 

Intro & Outro Music: La Pompe Du Trompe by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com