The Schwa Sound | English Pronunciation Training

In this English pronunciation lesson,

we're focused a hundred percent on the most common sound in English, the schwa.

Arguably, it's also the most important,

especially when it comes to natural sounding speech. Now,

if you're thinking the schwa? What? What is that? I've never heard of it before.

Don't worry. I've got you in this Confident English lesson today.

You're going to learn what is the schwa in English?

Why is it so important and two essential rules for

using the schwa along the way,

you'll learn eight ways to apply those two rules.

So you'll easily recognize words in which you should be using the schwa sound.

And the great news is learning to use the schwa correctly will not only help

you with natural sounding speech and English,

but it will also help you better understand fast English speakers.

But before I say any more about that, very quickly, let me introduce myself.

Just in case this is your first time here.

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

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These lessons focus on fluency and confidence, building strategies in-depth,

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make sure you give it a thumbs up and subscribe.

So you don't miss my future lessons. Now let's get back to the schwa.

I mentioned briefly that understanding the schwa will help you understand

fast English speakers.

And this lesson is actually part of an entire series I have on

better understanding fast English speakers. You can get all of those lessons.

For example, on assimilation, dropped sounds,

and more by checking out my fast English speaker series.

I'll leave a link to that playlist in the notes below.

And now I want you to sit down,

get comfortable and let's learn everything you need to know about the schwa,

why it's important and how you can use it.

We're going to start at the beginning. What exactly is the schwa?

As you'll learn, the schwa is the most common vowel sound in English.

And it's what we call a reduced vowel sound. In other words, it's really lazy.

It doesn't like to do a lot of work.

The reason it's the most common is the schwa sound can

replace vowels in a word. It can replace any vowel,

an A E I O or U sound.

And you'll see examples of that as we continue through this lesson.

Now you might be thinking, do I really need to know this?

Can't I just use the normal vowel sounds? Well,

you could. However,

the schwa is used to convey the correct stress and rhythm

of the English language. And that's why it's so important.

We'll talk much more about stress in English, but before we go there,

let's talk about what the schwa sounds like.

The schwa sound typically sounds like, uh,

uh, uh, notice that everything is relaxed.

When I make that sound, my jaw, my lips, everything, uh,

uh,

in writing the symbol that we use to represent the schwa is this symbol - ə.

However, typically in writing, you don't see the schwa, for example,

in the word helmet, you don't see the schwa written. However,

you do hear it. Listen again, helmet

that second E has an, uh, sound helmet,

a helmet.

This is exactly what makes the schwa so challenging.

The fact that we don't see it in writing.

When you learn a new word and you learn that word in writing,

you see it with all the vowels we have in English,

but spoken communication. It's there. Here's another example.

When you learn the word content, for example, I feel content.

In that word, you see the O vowel but in spoken communication

we hear the schwa - con content

content. Remember the, uh, sound content.

Before we learn the two essential rules for using the schwa,

let's talk about how this is related to better understanding fast

English speakers.

The schwa is used in unstressed syllables,

which we're going to learn much more about in a moment. And when used,

it said faster with lower volume than you might hear

in stressed syllables. In speaking,

what that means is the schwa reduces the amount of time.

It takes to say a vowel in the word.

And as a result when English speakers use it,

it sounds like they're speaking faster.

The amount of time needed to speak or say that syllable is reduced

using the schwa, gives the illusion.

That words are being said more quickly learning to recognize the schwa

in spoken communication and learning to use it is going to help you in multiple

ways. First, it will strengthen your listening skills.

It will help you get familiar with the stressed timed nature of the

English rhythm. As a result,

you'll have improved comprehension with native English speakers,

and you'll be able to produce these sounds as well for natural sounding speech.

So let's talk about rule number one, using the schwa.

The schwa is used in unstressed syllables to understand

this rule and to apply it.

It is essential to understand the difference between stressed and unstressed

syllables.

And this can be a challenge because not everyone can initially hear

the difference between stressed and unstressed sounds in English.

So let me share with you an example that I learned many years ago

to help you recognize the difference. When I was a kid,

I loved playing outside with my neighborhood friends during the summer,

we would often be outside playing hide and seek or kickball.

And when it was time to go home for dinner or if it was during the school year,

and it was time for me to go home, to do my homework,

I would see my mom or dad come outside,

stand on the front porch and yell my name when they

did that, it would sound like this. ANNE-ma-RIE.

ANNE-ma-RIE,

can you hear the unstressed part of my name?

Listen again. ANNE-ma-RIE

notice that you don't hear ANNE-MA-RIE instead,

ANNE-ma-RIE,

the ma of my name is unstressed.

That syllable has less emphasis. It said faster.

And with lower volume. In fact, you can hear the schwa there,

an ma uh, uh, re with that in mind,

let's look at five specific uses of the schwa in

unstressed syllables use.

Number one is words ending with the vowel.

A in words that have more than one syllable and end

in the,

a vowel sound that final a is typically reduced to

AWA sound. For example, Cola, uh, uh,

Cola sofa Panda,

here are four more words, and I want you to apply that same rule,

use a schwa sound at the end.

I'm going to give you a moment to practice each word,

and then I'll say it as well so that you can listen and repeat number one,

barista, uh,

barista number two,

Fria number three, persona

number four, iguana.

Okay. Let's transition right into use number two,

because it's very similar in words with more than one syllable that begin

with a letter a,

that first syllable can be used with a schwa sound.

When it's a weak syllable,

let's take a look at some example words,

instead of enunciating an a sound. As in the words,

day may say we hear schwa the

beginning of these, uh,

a go a tone away.

I want you to give this fourth one, a try on your own

Alaska in use three,

the schwa can be found in the middle of a word when it has

more than two syllables. And when it is a weak syllable,

for example,

elephant listen carefully to the middle syllable,

elephant el-e-phant, elephant,

dinosaur, sediment.

Elephant dinosaur sediment.

Look at the spelling of those words.

Notice that each one contains a different vowel in the middle

syllable yet we're still using the schwa sound in each one of those.

Let's try a few more this time. I want you to say them first,

and then you'll hear me say them so that you can listen and repeat.

I also want you to think about how many schwa sounds are in the word.

So let's try number one, algebra,

algebra, algebra, how many schwa sounds do you think we have there?

Algebra algebra

two schwa sounds algebra word, number two,

academic academic.

How many schwa sounds are there? There's just one

academic. The second syllable,

ACA academic and number three, transatlantic

transatlantic. Listen,

one more time and see if you can identify where the schwa is.

Transatlantic it's at the beginning of the word Atlantic.

Okay. It's time for use number four of using the schwa in

unstressed syllables. In this case,

the schwa is often used when words end in A I N,

A N or O N.

And it has to be when the syllable is unstressed or a

weak syllable, for example, in the word human,

the first syllable carries the primary stress.

And the second syllable is unstressed rather than pronounce the

second syllable as the word man,

as we would in the singular word, man,

it takes on the schwa human, uh, uh,

human human, using that same rule.

How would you pronounce these words?

Take a moment to practice once again,

I'll say them aloud so that you can listen and repeat. So, number one,

what do you think when we say number one, you don't hear bargain,

you hear bargain, uh, uh, bargain number two,

captain, captain, number

reason,

and number four person person notice

in all four of those examples,

that final unstressed syllable has an, uh,

sound that schwa and now use number five for using the

schwa in unstressed. Syllables is with noun suffixes.

As a quick reminder, a suffix is added to the end of a word,

and it changes the form of a word. For example,

if I have the verb to compete,

when I add -tion at the end, it becomes competition. A noun.

-tion is a noun suffix words that

end in a no suffix and are an unstressed.

Syllable are pronounced as the schwa. Now in English,

we have quite a few noun suffixes in this video lesson,

I'm going to review three of them with examples so that you can hear that schwa

sound.

If you want a full list of noun suffixes in English and

examples where you can hear the schwa,

I recommend visiting this lesson at my Speak Confident English website in

that lesson,

you'll see everything in writing and including 11 noun suffixes that

follow this rule. Now let's get into the first three.

We're going to review together right now.

First nouns ending in -tion,

T I O N for example, the word station, uh,

station

that first syllable has all the stress staion.

This is similar to the word that we just used competition.

The second, no suffix is words that end in -ity,

as in the noun ability.

Notice the I in I T Y is

ability. And the third example,

nouns that end -ism, I S M for example,

feminism, um, feminism,

can you think of other example words with those same noun suffixes,

take a moment, write one or two down practice saying them aloud.

You'll notice that schwa sound is present.

Now let's transition to the second rule for using the

schwa and we'll look at three specific uses of that rule.

But before I go there,

don't forget if you want a full list of those noun suffixes with examples,

make sure that you visit the Speak Confident English website,

and now rule number two for using the schwa.

Use the schwa with function words.

If you are one of my Fluency School students,

you absolutely know what function words are. Function.

Words are words that have a grammatical or structural relationship

with other words in the sentence. In other words, they have a job to do.

And here are examples of function words in English,

conjunctions, such as because, and, but however,

determiners, for example,

you are there prepositions act on

into of pronouns. For example, anybody,

someone auxiliary verbs such as do does

am question words, who, what,

when and qualifiers somewhat rather

a little in English grammar, these are all function words.

And when used in a sentence, you'll often hear the schwa.

Our first use with this rule is when you have a one

syllable function word, use the schwa sound, function words,

such as two, four, and, uh, the,

and so on have vowel sounds that are typically reduced to the

schwa sound. And in speaking,

this gives the illusion that someone is speaking particularly fast because you,

you don't hear those function words.

Clearly when you have a function word in isolation,

or if someone is intentionally emphasizing the word,

then the vowel sounds, remain fully intact. For example,

if I have this word here,

as in isolation, you hear the full vowel sounds. However,

when used in a sentence or in combination with other words,

it becomes unstressed. And as a result,

you don't hear as you hear us, we have that,

uh, sound as for example, the sentence.

I'm not as tall as you. I'm not as tall as you

listen carefully.

You don't hear I'm not as tall as you

instead. We have that schwa sound.

I'm not as tall as you.

I'm not as tall as you similarly.

Let's look at this word when pronounced in isolation,

you'll hear your however,

when used in a sentence in an unstressed syllable, it's your,

uh, your, for example, I'd like to

hear your opinion.

Let's give this a try with a few example sentences in each of these

sentences, I've highlighted the function word.

And I want you to try saying the sentence using the schwa sound.

Let's give the first one a try the cards for

me instead of four, we have fur,

I need a cup of coffee. I need a,

I need a cuppa, a of coffee. I need a cup of coffee.

And number three, could you pass me

a pen now that you've got that down?

This is the perfect time to go into use.

Number two of this rule with function words,

we use the schwa in reductions with two,

one of our function words in my playlist on how to

understand fast English speakers.

I've included a full lesson on common reductions in English.

Let's revisit that topic briefly.

Some words combine with two to form reductions,

for example,

gonna wanna gotta when that reduced form occurs,

they also weaken in stress and adopt the schwa sound.

So instead of clearly hearing going to

you'll hear gonna, as in this sentence, I'm gonna go to the store.

The same is true with have to,

instead of I have to go to the store, we have, have to,

I have to go to the store once again,

we have that schwa to have to, and lastly, gotta,

Now that you have these two clear rules of how to use the schwa

sound in English, and when you should let's practice,

I have a long sentence here for you, and I want you to apply these rules.

These uses that you've learned and see if you can identify all the places

where we should use a schwa sound. If you want,

you can write this sentence down in a notebook and circle or

underline the places where AWA sound would be used. In speaking,

once you've finished, you can take a look at my example,

sentence with the schwa sounds highlighted in the comments below now

to help you.

I am going to say this sentence out loud so you can listen carefully for those

schwa sounds. Here we go.

An elephant walked into the room and spilled the professor's drink on the sofa.

Listen again.

An elephant walked into the room and spilled the professor's drink on the sofa.

Again,

you'll find my sentence written out with the schwa sounds in the

comments below. If you found this lesson helpful to you,

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Thank you so much for joining me and I'll look forward to seeing you next time.