A scheme is proposed for generating entangled W states with four cavity modes. In this scheme, we send a Ⅴ-type three-level atom through two identical two-mode cavities in succession. After the atom exits from the second cavity,the four cavity modes are prepared in the W state. On the other hand we can obtain three-atom W states by sending three Ⅴ-type three-level atoms through a two-mode cavity in tu. The present scheme does not require conditional measurement, and it is easily generalized to preparing 2n-mode W states and n-atom W states.