The Schwa - English In A Minute

252,972 views ・ 2020-12-28

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Let's find out how to make your pronunciation more natural.
0
80
4240
00:04
So in fast speech we don't pronounce every word equally.
1
4320
4960
00:09
Fast words are often pronounced as this sound - 'the schwa'.
2
9280
4320
00:13
It's a lazy sound like this 'uh'. Here are some examples:
3
13600
4640
00:18
In natural speech grammar words like articles,
4
18240
4200
00:22
prepositions can be reduced to a 'schwa'.
5
22440
2840
00:25
'A' and 'of' can become 'Ə'. 'An' becomes 'Əm'. 'To' becomes 'tƏ'.
6
25280
6320
00:31
'A cup of tea' becomes 'Ə cup Ə tea'.
7
31600
3360
00:34
Also the auxiliary 'have' is often reduced to just 'Ə'.
8
34960
4800
00:39
'Would have' becomes 'wouldƏ', 'should have' 'shouldƏ'
9
39760
3760
00:43
and 'could have' 'couldƏ'.
10
43520
1680
00:45
You should have told me, I would have helped.
11
45200
2160
00:47
And with 'going to', the 'to' often becomes 'Ə' so we
12
47360
3600
00:50
get 'gƏnnƏ' and 'want to' becomes 'wƏnnƏ'.
13
50960
3280
00:54
So if you want to sound more natural you're going to have to use the schwa.
14
54240
4296

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7