Good day, English Winners. Today I'm going to introduce to you a new pronunciation
sound in the English language: the schwa.
So, what is the schwa? Well, it has this weird symbol, and pronunciation that
looks like an upside-down e. But it's actually the easiest sound to say, but...
until you learn about it, it's also the hardest to hear, and that sound is 'uh'. It
could be written as 'uh' or as just an 'a'. So, because knowing the sound and hearing
it in everyday conversation is so important for your fluency, I'm putting
this video in the pronunciation and the listening playlist, so you have a double
exposure to this idea. Now some people have an easier time with the schwa than
others... Dutch, Romanian, Armenian, Hindi, Indonesian... they all have a pretty easy
time with the 'a' sound, but some people have a little bit more trouble. I've
noticed that the Spanish speakers... they'll sometimes say 'eh', instead of 'uh'.
And also the East Asian speakers... they'll go 'Aw', instead of 'uh'... particularly
people from Korea or Japan. So it's important to learn the 'uh', and it's very
simple; all you need to do to say 'uh' is to make sure your tongue is on
the bottom part of your mouth - not touching your teeth -
just resting comfortably... right in the middle. And then just kind of push with
your stomach and just say 'uh', and just practice that sound over and over until
you get it. 'Uh'. Remember where your tongue is, okay? Bottom of your mouth... right in
the center - not touching your teeth or the front of your mouth - 'uh'. So, pretty
easy, right? Once you get that sound, it will help you a lot in your English
speaking ability. So, repeat after me: Again... Again... Again... so the word 'again'... that
first sound, 'uh', is the schwa sound. Now, why is the schwa
more difficult to hear? The simple answer is, we don't stay on it for a very long
time. The syllables and words around the schwa get more stress. Let's look at that
word 'again'; notice how the stress goes aGAIN? I don't stay on the 'A' very much.
Sometimes people might just quickly say '-gain', and people will hear 'again'... if
they're very fluent at English. Let me give you an example of how people use 'uh'
frequently. Uh... Let me think...uh... public speaking. Many people who speak in
front of others for a living will measure their success and fluency
as a public speaker by how many times they say the word 'uh'.
and the word 'uh' is used as a placeholder sometimes in everyday conversation when
we don't know what to say next, or, we know the idea of what we're going to say
next, but we don't know how we're going to say it. So uh...uh...uh... like that. People use it
like that. I notice East Asians will do 'aw' or 'oh', and Spanish speakers
- especially in Argentina - I heard 'em' all the time. They'd go 'em... yo no sé'.
and stuff like that. So, the American version of that is 'uh'. Here is an example
of Barack Obama... very good speaker, but he does it all the time in interviews. Check
this out: [OBAMA]: in addition to John- Sorry, the the uh... that the I just noticed... uh...that I jumped the gun
here. Go ahead move it up. I had already... uh... I had already
introduced all you guys. [ME]: Placeholder sounds aside, the schwa sound is used for
many words as well, and I'm going to throw some up on the board behind me, so
we can practice together. You see these words up here? We're going to go over
them one by one, so that way, you can practice your schwa sound, 'uh'. Are you
ready? Let's go: again... the... allow... about... one...
Umpire... now 'umpire' is a little different. The umpire sound... the 'uh' sound gets the
stress: UMpire, instead of umPIRE. UMpire, okay? So, try that one more time,
UMpire... Let's keep going: amazing... but... truck... regular... ombudsmen- that one has
two schwas: Om-bUds-mUn. Now, why does the word man have the 'uh'
sound in there? I'll go into that a little bit further in this video. Until
then, practice these a couple times, and then we'll go to sentences... sentence time!
I believe we should try again. Drive the truck on the driveway. The Ombudsman has
questions about our office spending policies. The umpire called a strike on
that last pitch. Amazing, work everyone. So, don't be surprised to see the schwa
sound being used in places you do not expect. In the eastern United States -
particularly the Bostonian accent, or New England accent - uses the schwa sound in
place of ER -er, or OR -or. Instead of 'Informer', you might hear 'informa'... and
instead of, you know, OR sounds, like 'tractor,' you'll hear 'tracta'. Instead of
words like 'factor', you'll here 'facta'. So that's a
little bit of a difference. You'll also see that - I don't recommend this show - but
the TV show, Family Guy, is a great example of that; The main character, Peter
Griffin, and his wife, Lois Griffin, they always use that Bostonian accent. So, if
you ever watched clips or episodes from that show and were a little bit
confused as to why they're speaking that way, now you understand: it's a Bostonian
accent. And the schwa sound is used all the time in the Bostonian accent.
Here's another thing you'll hear all the time with English speakers: the word 'man',
if it's used at the end of a word like 'policeman', it's not gonna be 'police man'.
People are gonna say 'policemun.' So, you hear the Mun... the 'UH'... that schwa sound is
in there, somewhere. Here are some other examples: you have
Ombudsman, woman, policeman, fireman... and so all those words have the schwa sound,
Mun, instead of man. If you say man, it'll sound a little awkward. Now, the schwa is
also used in something called weak forms, which is where two words or syllables
kind of get jammed together. In the case of two or more words, it sounds like
those two or more words are being pronounced like one word. So 'have to'
would become 'hafta'. I already made a video that talks about this a little bit,
but I didn't call it weak forms. I'll post a link to that video in the
description. Until then, I will also make another video on weak forms in the
future, but I wanted to make sure you understood the schwa sound before I made
that video, okay? So that's it for our schwa sound. Check out my pronunciation
playlist right over there, and then I also have a link to another video, here
that I think will be helpful for you. If you like this video, please hit that
SUBSCRIBE button, and... is there any accent that confuses you? Have you heard
any thing in the English language that you don't understand with pronunciation?
Tell me in the comments below. Until then, I'll see you later, English Winners. Bye
now.