Pronunciation: WORK vs. WALK

The spelling of the words work and walk is quite unhelpful for understanding how to pronounce them, so it might be easier if you imagine them being spelled werk and wawk.

The vowel sound that appears in work can be spelled many different ways, so if you know how to pronounce these other words, you can use them as a guide:

A nurse heard a birth at work.

And here is a sentence to help you with the vowel sound in walk:

I thought I saw a hawk walk.

The l in walk is silent in all common varieties of English.

In the so-called non-rhotic accents spoken in many British colonies and in most of Britain itself, the r in work is also silent. In rhotic varieties of English spoken in Canada, most of the USA, Ireland, and some parts of the UK including Scotland, Northern Ireland and the South West of England (particularly Cornwall where the locals sound a bit like pirates), speakers do pronounce the r in work.