Wh Words

Wh is a digraph: two letters that spell one sound. The surprise is which sound.

For most American speakers, wh sounds exactly like w. Which and witch are said the same way, and so are whale and wail, where and wear. If you were taught to blow a little puff of air before the w, that sound is real and some speakers still use it, but it has mostly gone. In The Atlas of North American English, Labov, Ash and Boberg (2006) found that about 83% of their survey respondents across the United States and Canada had lost the distinction completely, with the remaining 17% keeping some trace of it, most often in the South.

So why learn wh at all? Because you have to know which words take the h to spell them. That is the honest reason, and it is a spelling job more than a reading one. Your child can already say these words; what they need is to know that when has an h in it and went does not.

What sound does wh make?

Wh usually makes the same sound as w, and in four common words it makes the sound of h instead. There is no third option, and the four are worth learning as a set: who, whose, whom and whole.

• wh says w in when, what, where, why, which, white, wheel, whale, wheat, whip and whisk. This is almost every wh word your child will meet.
• wh says h in who, whose, whom and whole. The w is silent, and these are read as hoo, hooz, hoom and hole.

If your household does say the puff-of-air version, teach it as you say it. A child learns the sounds of the people around them, and a mismatch between what a parent says and what a worksheet claims is more confusing than either version on its own.

Why do who and whole sound different?

Because the w went quiet in those words hundreds of years ago, and the spelling never caught up. That is the whole explanation, and it is worth giving your child rather than leaving it as a mystery, because a child who meets who and reads “woo” has done exactly what they were taught to do.

Treat these four as heart words. Most of the word is regular, and there is one small part to learn by heart: in who, whose, whom and whole, the w is silent. That is the same approach the kindergarten and 1st grade sight word lists use for every word that is mostly regular with one tricky piece.

Who matters most. It is one of the most common words in English, and a child meets it long before anyone explains it.

Wh question words: who, what, where, when, why

The five question words are also wh words, so the same lists do both jobs. When your child learns to read when and what, they are learning to read two of the five words every question in English starts with.

This page teaches them as reading and spelling. Using them to ask and answer questions is a different skill, a language one rather than a phonics one, and it belongs with a teacher or a speech-language pathologist rather than a word list. Four of the five turn up on the kindergarten and 1st grade sight word lists, which is where a child usually meets them first.

How should you use these wh worksheets?

Start with the words where wh says w, because they are almost all of them. Read the word cards, then the sound boxes, where wh goes in one box: when is four letters and three sounds, wh, e and n.

Start here once sh, ch and th are comfortable. Wh is usually the fourth digraph taught, and it is the easiest of the four to read and the hardest to spell, because nothing in the sound tells your child the h is there. Common Core RF.1.3a asks first graders to “know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs”, which is the bracket wh sits in, though the standard names no digraph in particular and schools order them differently. Teaching one pattern at a time in a planned order is what the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report calls systematic phonics, and the panel found it helps children from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The spelling direction is where the work is. Say a wh word and have your child write it. If they write wen for when, they have read it correctly and spelled it the way it sounds, which is exactly what you would expect. Point at the h and say it is there in every question word.

When the w-sound words are easy, the four h-sound words come next. They have a handwriting sheet of their own, which is the one that matters for them: reading who is a rule to unlearn, and spelling it is copying practice. The word sort at the bottom of this page then brings the two sounds together, and the handwriting sheet beside it is the first with all sixteen words on one page.

Which wh words sound like w?

Every word here starts with wh, and every one of them sounds as though it started with w. When sounds like wen. Which sounds like witch. That is not sloppiness, it is how most Americans say them.

So the reading is easy and the spelling is the work. Your child will read these almost as soon as they can read w words. What they will not know is which words hide an h, and the only way to learn that is to write them.

A useful pattern to point out: the question words all take wh. When, what, where, why and which are five of the twelve words here, and a child who notices that has a rule they can actually use. Whistle, whisper and whale have to be learned one at a time.

• when
• what
• where
• why
• which
• white
• wheel
• whale
• wheat
• whip
• whisk
• whisper

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Printables for Wh Words That Sound Like W

1. 1Wh Words That Sound Like W: Word Cards (PDF)12 cards · 2 pagesDownload
2. 2Wh Words That Sound Like W: Sound Boxes (PDF)8 words · answer key included · 2 pagesDownload
3. 3Wh Words That Sound Like W: Trace and Write (PDF)11 words · 2 pagesDownload
4. 4Wh Words That Sound Like W: Handwriting Practice (PDF)12 words · 2 pagesDownload
5. 5Wh Words That Sound Like W: Word Search (PDF)12 words · answer key included · 2 pagesDownload

Which wh words sound like h?

In these four words the w is silent, and wh says h. Who is read hoo, whose is hooz, whom is hoom, and whole is hole.

There are only four in ordinary use, which is what makes them learnable. They are not a pattern your child can work out from the letters, and there is no rule underneath them worth teaching: the w stopped being said centuries ago and the spelling stayed.

Who is the one that matters. It turns up constantly, and a child who reads it as “woo” is applying the wh rule correctly to the one set of words where it does not hold. Say it plainly: in these four, the w is quiet.

Whole has a second thing going on that is worth separating out. It is the word hole with a w added to the front of it in writing only, so whole and hole sound identical and mean different things. That is a spelling problem for later, not a reading one for now.

Write them, do not just read them. A child reads who wrong by applying the wh rule correctly, and then spells it by ear once they know it. Copying the four is what fixes the second half, and the handwriting sheet below leaves a page of free lines under them for exactly that.

• who
• whose
• whom
• whole

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Printables for Wh Words That Sound Like H

1. Wh Words That Sound Like H: Handwriting Practice (PDF)4 words · 1 pageDownload

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Mixed review: printables for the whole list

Every sheet below is built from the Wh Words above. No account, no email, no watermark. Start at the top and print one at a time. The sheets are in teaching order, and ten minutes on a single sheet is more valuable than working through a stack on autopilot.

1. 1Wh Word Cards (PDF)16 cards · 2 pagesDownload
2. 2Wh Word Sort (PDF)8 words · answer key included · 2 pagesDownload
3. 3Wh Words: Handwriting Practice (PDF)16 words · 2 pagesDownload

What comes after wh words?

Wh is usually the last of the four common digraphs, so what comes next is not another pair of letters but consonant blends: the two- and three-letter clusters where you still hear every sound.

• Sh words and ch words: the two your child most likely met first, each with its own lists and sheets
• Words with th: both th sounds, each with its own list and worksheets
• 1st grade digraph words: sh, ch, th and wh together, three sounds a word
• Silent-e words: the pattern that comes after the digraphs and the blends

If the h in these words keeps disappearing when your child writes them, that is normal and it is a spelling problem rather than a reading one. Keep reading wh words in books, and practise the writing a few words at a time.

Frequently asked questions

What sound does wh make?

For most American speakers wh sounds exactly like w, so which and witch are said the same way. A smaller group of speakers keeps an older sound with a puff of air before the w. In four common words, wh says h instead: who, whose, whom and whole.

Why do who and whole sound different?

Because the w in those words went quiet hundreds of years ago and the spelling never caught up. Who is read hoo, whose is hooz, whom is hoom and whole is hole. They are best learned as heart words, mostly regular with one small part to learn by heart.

What words start with wh?

When, what, where, why, which, white, wheel, whale, wheat, whip, whisk and whisper are a good starter set, and all of them sound as though they start with w. The five question words are the ones your child will meet most.

Is wh a digraph?

Yes. Wh is two letters spelling one sound, which is what a digraph is, and it is usually taught after sh, ch and th. It is the easiest of the four to read and the hardest to spell, because nothing in the sound tells a child the h is there.

How do I help my child spell wh words?

Say the word and have them write it. If they write wen for when, they have read the sound correctly and spelled it the way it sounds, which is exactly what you would expect. Point at the h and give them the pattern they can actually use: the question words all take wh.