 Can you pronounce vein or vase, or is your result vein or vase? If the latter is true, then you share a strange problem with a surprisingly large number of Germans. Our target words all exhibit an initial orthographical V and are pronounced with a labiodental fricative, which you should be able to produce. The German equivalents Veene and vase are almost identical with their present-day English counterparts, and you can say them, can't you? Nevertheless, many Germans, when they pronounce the present-day English counterparts, say Wayne or Waz. What's happening? The reason seems to be some sort of confusion. In German, words spelt with a W and with a V are both pronounced with a labiodental fricative, as in Veene, Vokal and Vassa or Wint. That is, in German we have two different letters, but the same sound. In English, these two letters are used too, but they are associated with different sounds. V with a labiodental fricative and W with a labiovela approximate. And this simply leads to some degree of confusion. What can we do? Well, it's simple. Practice. You can produce both sounds. The labiodental fricative is part of the German sound inventory, and the labiovela approximate can easily be learned. So, let's practice. Let's first produce some simple pairs. Vine, wine. Vest, west. Viper, wiper. Roving, rowing. Now try some phrases that contain both sounds. Five weeks. Very well. A wool vest. Every week. And finally, pronounce these sentences. I've been waiting for five weeks. We want to visit West Virginia with a white vehicle. Well, and if you want, you can do that again and again. I'm sure this advice helps, and you no longer mix up words like west and vest.