中性元音，非中央元音

What is schwa?

Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions.

Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural. The phonemic symbol for this sound is /?/ .

In unstressed syllables

Any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa and the pronunciation of a vowel letter can change depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not. Look at these two words:

In the word ’man’ the letter ’a’ has its full sound - represented by the symbol /?/.

In ’postman’ the syllable ’man’ is not stressed and the letter ’a’ is pronounced as schwa, represented by the symbol /?/.

Not just a letter

The sound schwa does not only represent a single letter. In some words it is the sound of several letters or even a whole syllable.

This is often, but not only, seen in words which have a syllable made up of a vowel letter followed by the letter ’r’. Remember the schwa sound is only used if the syllable which it is in is not stressed.

Look at these examples, the schwa sounds are marked in red: This present is for my brother. It’s a book about a boy wizard.

To survive the cold weather you have to make thorough preparations.

Schwa /? /

This is a short vowel sound /?/. And make this sound is just relax your mouth. You try listen and repeat /?/, and again /?/. In fact this is a very common sound in English. And in many grammar words is the only vowel sound, such as: a /?/ of /?/ the /?/ that /?/

Let's practice these. Listen and repeat. a /?/ of /?/ the /?/ that /?/

And you can also get this sound in many words with more than one syllable. Listen.

about common standard butter. Let's practice. Listen to me and repeat. about common standard butter.

Extra information

The most important sound in English

You could say vowel /?/ is the most important vowel in English. In fact it is so important that it has its own name. It's called “John”. No, not really, it is actually called schwa. Schwa, which could be strange you think about it because the word schwa doesn't have schwa's sound /?/ in it. So why is this sound so important? Well it's very natural sound for English speakers and actually most frequent sound in English. It appears in just every word more than two syllables. And it's very important for getting stress and reasonable 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 being a part of many words, schwa can also be the pronunciation for a whole word itself. And I'll show you this. I'm going to need an assistant. a cup of tea /??kΛp? ti:/

An ordinary a cup of tea. But what would happen when I say a and of naturally. a cup of tea /??kΛp? ti:/. The word a and of become schwa /?/. Now you try. Listen and repeat after me.

a cup of tea /??kΛp? ti:/

This is such the natural and common way to pronounce cup of. But in British English the word cuppa /kΛp?/actually means a cup of tea. And after all that, I really afford my

cuppa, actually what I really fancy is a piece of cake /?? pi:s? keik /.

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