English Pronunciation 👄 How to say the schwa sound /ə/ in words like ‘the’, ‘of’ & ‘butter’

This is a short vowel sound - it's pronounced /ə/,  and to make this sound you just relax your mouth.  

You try - listen and repeat: /ə/, and again /ə/.  In fact, this is a very common sound in English,  

and in many grammar words it's the only  vowel sound, such as: 'a', 'the, 'of',  

'that'. Let's practice these - listen and repeat:  'a', 'the, 'of', 'that'. Now you also get this  

sound in many words of more than one syllable -  listen: 'about', 'common', 'standard', 'butter'.  

Let's practice - listen to me and repeat:  'about', 'common', 'standard', 'butter'. Good.

You could say that the vowel /ə/ is the most  important vowel in English. In fact, it's so  

important it has its own name - it's called John.  No, not really it's actually called schwa - schwa,  

which is pretty strange when you think about it,  because the word schwa doesn't have the schwa  

sound in it. So, why is this sound so important?  Well it's a very natural sound for English  

speakers and it's actually the most frequent  sound in English. It appears in just about  

every word with more than two syllables and it's  very important for getting the stress and rhythm  

of English right. Schwa is usually in unstressed  syllables. Let's have a look at some examples:  

'accuse', 'banana', 'father', 'camera'. OK.  Now you try - listen and repeat: 'accuse',  

'banana', 'father', 'camera'. Now as well as  being a part of many words, schwa can also  

be the pronunciation for a whole word itself and  to show you this I'm going to need an assistant.

A cup of tea, thank you. An ordinary cup of  tea but listen to what happens when I say the  

words 'a' and 'of' naturally: a cup of tea -  a cup of tea. The words 'a' and 'of' become  

schwa /ə/. Now you try - listen and repeat  after me: 'a cup of tea' - 'a cup of tea'.  

Good. Now this is such a natural and common  way to pronounce 'cup of' that in British  

English the word 'cuppa' actually means 'a  cup of tea', and after all that I'm really  

looking forward to my cuppa. Actually,  what I really fancy is a piece of cake.