Schwa Sound

Vowel of the day: Schwa

Schwa is the most common sound in the English language. It occurs only 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.

Where is it found?

1.  Schwa can usually be found in function words which are unstressed in the sentence;

2. It can be found in prefixes and suffixes;

3. It can be found in content words as well.

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

Listen to the example below:

Schwa - I'm going to the shop to buy some eggs

Following are some exercises to help you develop your awareness of schwa. The exercises belong to BBC Learning English and Okanagan College. 

Exercise #1

Watch the video about the Schwa sound. Listen and repeat the words. 

Exercise #2 Listen and Repeat

Repeat the phrases below. The underlined word will contain the schwa.

each and every       cold as ice               feel at ease

John had gone        These are cheap.     three or four  

        

box of apples          cup of tea               we can stay

more than that         Get some sleep.     ten to two.

Exercise #3

Look at the words below and decide where in the word the schwa sound occurs. In the comment section of this post,  indicate the schwa symbol in the correct part of the word using the Caps Lock function in your keyboard. The first one has been done for you. 

       /ə/

 doctOR               tomorrow                difficult                summer              level           

 survive                pupil                        theatre                measure            wizard

Exercise #4

In this exercise, look at these sentences and decide where the schwa sound occurs. It may occur more than once in each sentence. The minimum number of schwas in a sentence is 1, the maximum 7.  In the comment section of this post,  indicate the schwa symbol in the correct part of the word using the Caps Lock function in your keyboard. The first one has been done for you. 

            /ə/    

1 . It’s fOR  you.

2 . It takes a lot of time.

3 . How about a cup of tea?

4 . What are you doing tonight?

5 . What time will you arrive at Victoria?

6 . I was going to tell you.

PS.: You can click on the radio (upper right corner of the blog) to listen to a podcast about the Schwa sound by the BBC Learn English program. 

Source: BBC Learn English - Pronunciation Tips (Schwa)

Okanagan College - Pronunciation (Schwa exercises)

Image Source: Schwa Baloons