The Schwa - English In A Minute

Let's find out how to make your pronunciation more natural.

So in fast speech we don't pronounce every word equally.

Fast words are often pronounced as this sound - 'the schwa'.

It's a lazy sound like this 'uh'. Here are some examples:

In natural speech grammar words like articles,

prepositions can be reduced to a 'schwa'.

'A' and 'of' can become 'Ə'. 'An' becomes 'Əm'. 'To' becomes 'tƏ'.

'A cup of tea' becomes 'Ə cup Ə tea'.

Also the auxiliary 'have' is often reduced to just 'Ə'.

'Would have' becomes 'wouldƏ', 'should have' 'shouldƏ'

and 'could have' 'couldƏ'.

You should have told me, I would have helped.

And with 'going to', the 'to' often becomes 'Ə' so we

get 'gƏnnƏ' and 'want to' becomes 'wƏnnƏ'.

So if you want to sound more natural you're going to have to use the schwa.