How to Sound More Fluent in English (in 10 minutes)

Well, the schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in the English language,

and it is a very important part of speaking English naturally.

And fluently.

Unfortunately, many of my students say that they struggle

to identify and pronounce the sound, especially because it's spelled

in so many different ways.

For example,

They're all spelled differently, but they all contain the schwa sound.

So if you're still confused by the schwa sound,

stick around, because in today's lesson, we'll practice how to

pronounce the schwa. We'll also do a listening test to see if you can identify the schwa

in different words.

And I will share 3 tips so that you leave this lesson as a schwa expert.

But before you get started, if you are new here each week,

recreate lessons like this one to help English learners

like you go from feeling like a lost and insecure English learner

to a confident and natural English speaker.

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So what is the schwa?

Basically, it sounds similar to the sound someone would make

if they were thinking of a word.

Take a look at these examples:

Understanding the difference between stressed and unstressed

sound is key to mastering the schwa.

For example, the word banana has two schwa sounds.

So the stressed syllable is said louder

or with more emphasis than the other syllables.

So while stressed sounds are louder,

the unstressed sounds are harder to hear when we say a word out loud

because we don't stress these vowels, we often replace them with the schwa sound

instead. For example, in the word Family.

The schwa is also often called the lazy vowel sound

because we hardly need to open or move our mouths when we say it.

Your tongue, lips and jaw are relaxed

with your mouth slightly open and your tongue centered.

It also takes very little time to say the schwa sound in a word.

So little in fact, that sometimes we even skip over it.

For example, the second O in chocolate.

Ooh, I'm really looking forward

to eating this chocolate.

I'm really looking forward to eating this chocolate.

And sometimes we don't even represent it in spelling, in words such as rhythm.

I really like the rhythm of the song.

I really like the rhythm of the song.

Learning how to identify and use

this sound can transform your pronunciation tremendously.

Let's do a quick exercise.

I'll show you four pictures.

Read each word as you normally would

in Parrot and Lion.

We do not pronounce the o sound. In Camel,

We do not pronounce the E sound.

And in zebra, we do not pronounce the a sound. Could you get the schwa in all of them?

If not. Don't worry.

All you need is practice.

But I understand that

like many of my students, perhaps you don't have anyone to practice with.

So we've come up with a solution for this.

Our RealLife English app.

It's the only place where any time, anywhere

you can connect with English learners from around the world.

You can even use it to practice the schwa sound.

Or you can have fascinating conversations about your life, your passions,

your hobbies.

Absolutely anything. Having a great teacher

can be life changing, but it can also be quite expensive.

This is why our RealLife English app is a free resource

that you can use to practice your speaking right now.

So download it now for free.

By clicking up here or down in the description box below,

or visit your favorite app store and search for RealLife English.

Here are three tips that you can use to practice the schwa sound when you are alone.

So the schwa sound tends to appear in a few common places.

Here are two patterns that you can easily memorize.

For example, in the word telephone

For example, in the word contaminated

Whether it's movies, TV series or podcasts,

we often use the schwa when reducing or connecting words, for example.

Going to becomes gonna, kind of becomes kinda and I don't know.

Becomes I dunno.

Before you continue watching, why not pause the video

and let us know down in the comments?

If you want to learn more about the schwa sound.

Share your answer down in the comments and why not add

an encouraging message to the other members of the community.

Now, let's do a quick quiz to see if you can identify the word with the schwa

in each of these sentences.

Great job.

And don't worry if you didn't get all of them correct.

You can always watch this lesson

again, until you're able to easily pronounce and identify the schwa sound.

Remember that ultimately it comes down to lots of practice and exposure

so that eventually you can remember how to easily spell and pronounce each word.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson as much as I did,

and if you would like to continue your learning,

be sure to check out this video that I recently did on phrasal verbs.