english pronunciation schwa
Hi, in today's lesson we are going to be studying the most common sound in
English; the schwa sound. You will learn what it is, be able to recognize schwa in
English words and so improve your understanding. Then you'll copy my
pronunciation of these words and so improve your pronunciation. As no one
just speaks words in isolation we are also going to be looking at the schwa sound
in sentences and again you will have the opportunity to copy me saying these
sentences with the schwa sound. Doing this will improve your accent and make
you sound more like a native speaker. So what is the schwa sound?
Let's take the word doctor. This word is pronounced doctor. The word has two syllables and the first
syllable is stressed so the unstressed syllable written "or" is pronounced "uh".
This is the schwa sound , "uh". Relax your jaw and open your mouth slightly.
The schwa sound written like this looks like an upside-down "e" so even though it's
written with an "o", it is pronounced "uh." Any vowel can be pronounced as schwa and the
pronunciation of a vowel letter can change depending whether the syllable
it's in is stressed or not. So now you know what schwa is now let's see if you
can hear it and then recreate it in your pronunciation. I'm going to show you a
word and I want you to think about it and decide where the schwa is . Sometimes
there may be two schwa sounds. Maybe pause the video and say the word out
loud, do you already say it with a schwa sound?
Then I will say the word and you can listen for the schwa then repeat the word with
the schwa sound in the right place. Are we ready?
So, now we are going to look at schwa within
sentences as people don't just speak words on their own. So, again I will say
the sentence and I want you to think about where you hear the schwa sound. I
will say each sentence twice. I will then show you where the schwa sound is and
then what I want you to repeat the sentence being sure to use schwa in the
right place. Again it might be useful for you to stop the video and say the
sentences out loud. So, let's go.
So, congratulations you now know about schwa and how to use it to improve
your spoken English. Remember to like this video if you found it useful. Share
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english pronunciation schwa