Verified: Scots /ʍ/ contrasts with English /w/ in wh- words; many merged varieties say which like witch.
- Round your lips for w. 2. Add a soft breath. 3. End with itch.
Beside each other: which, witch. Only the breathy onset differs. Say: Which one is yours?
Verified target: /wɪtʃ/, one syllable, no internal stress contrast. This is the standard form in most modern varieties, including England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and most of the US. In Scotland, most of Ireland, and parts of the southern US, the older breathy onset survives, written /ʍɪtʃ/ or /hwɪtʃ/.
Round your lips into a small w shape, slightly tense and pushed forward, before you say anything.
Push a short puff of air through that rounded opening before any voicing starts. That breath is the whole difference between which and witch where the two are kept apart.
End with itch: raise the tongue tip toward the ridge behind your top teeth, stop the air briefly, then release it into the ch sound.
- Keep the contrast beside the sound: /ʍɪtʃ/ which, /wɪtʃ/ witch. If your variety merges the two, both words sound the same, and that is fully standard for you, not an error to fix.
Say the whole word three times, each time aiming for the onset your variety uses, so the breathy or plain start becomes steady before you record. Then record yourself saying which and play it back beside the target above. Record which with the onset used in your variety for evaluation against its IPA target.phrasingCheck Which one is yours? The onset stays short and controlled; the stress lands on the whole single syllable.