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Pronunciation · Everyday words people get wrong

How to pronounce “women”

WIM-in

2 syllables · stress on “WIM”

WIMin
Britishˈwɪmɪn
Americanˈwɪmɪn

In short

“women” is pronounced WIM-in: 2 syllables, with the stress on “WIM”. The plural changes the FIRST vowel, not the second, even though only the second letter changes in spelling. Singular WUM-un, plural WIM-in. The version to avoid is WOO-men — using the vowel from the singular “woman”.

Say “women” in 3 steps

  1. 1Plural women: the first vowel is the /ɪ/ of “win”.
  2. 2Singular woman: the first vowel is the /ʊ/ of “put”.
  3. 3The second syllable sounds the same in both. Only the first vowel distinguishes them.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: WOO-men — using the vowel from the singular “woman”

The plural changes the FIRST vowel, not the second, even though only the second letter changes in spelling. Singular WUM-un, plural WIM-in.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

2 human recordings

Actual people saying “women”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Celestianpower and Justinrleung, licensed under Public domain / CC BY-SA 3.0. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

ww as in weɪi as in sitmm as in mannn as in no

Don't confuse it with…

Minimal pairs isolate the exact contrast this word depends on — the fastest way to train both ear and mouth.

More everyday words people get wrong

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

clothesKLOHDHZmonthsMUNTHSsixthSIKSTHaskedAHSKTFebruaryFEB-roo-uh-reelibraryLY-bruh-ree

Keep exploring

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce women?
women is pronounced WIM-in, written /ˈwɪmɪn/ in IPA. Plural women: the first vowel is the /ɪ/ of “win”.
How many syllables are in women?
two: WIM-in. The stress falls on “WIM”.
What is the most common mistake with women?
WOO-men — using the vowel from the singular “woman”. The plural changes the FIRST vowel, not the second, even though only the second letter changes in spelling. Singular WUM-un, plural WIM-in.
What is the difference between woman and women?
The difference is in the first vowel, not the second. Singular woman is WUM-un; plural women is WIM-in, with the vowel of “win”. The spelling changes the second syllable but the sound changes the first.

The full sound library

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