The Schwa - English In A Minute

196,562 views ・ 2020-12-28

BBC Learning English


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

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Let's find out how to make your pronunciation more natural.
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So in fast speech we don't pronounce every word equally.
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Fast words are often pronounced as this sound - 'the schwa'.
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It's a lazy sound like this 'uh'. Here are some examples:
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In natural speech grammar words like articles,
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prepositions can be reduced to a 'schwa'.
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'A' and 'of' can become 'Ə'. 'An' becomes 'Əm'. 'To' becomes 'tƏ'.
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'A cup of tea' becomes 'Ə cup Ə tea'.
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Also the auxiliary 'have' is often reduced to just 'Ə'.
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'Would have' becomes 'wouldƏ', 'should have' 'shouldƏ'
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and 'could have' 'couldƏ'.
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You should have told me, I would have helped.
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And with 'going to', the 'to' often becomes 'Ə' so we
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get 'gƏnnƏ' and 'want to' becomes 'wƏnnƏ'.
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So if you want to sound more natural you're going to have to use the schwa.
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Original video on YouTube.com
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