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The Schwa Sound: How… — Pronunciation with Emma shadowing | TryShadowing
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Pronunciation with Emma
The Schwa Sound: How to Pronounce the Schwa in Words and Sentences (The Complete Guide)
The Schwa Sound: How to Pronounce the Schwa in Words and Sentences (The Complete Guide)
Pronunciation with Emma
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15:57 · May 24, 2024
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0:00
hello and welcome back to pronunciation
0:02
with Emma or welcome if you're brand new to my Channel
0:05
today you're going to learn
0:06
how to pronounce the schah sound
0:08
in English you're also going to look at the rules for the schah
0:12
when to pronounce the schah
0:14
and at the very end of this lesson I have a short story prepared
0:18
for you so you can help improve your English pronunciation
0:21
and practice everything you've learned in this lesson
0:24
if you'd like a summary
0:25
of today's lesson featuring
0:27
all the examples all the rules
0:29
and and the story that we're going to practice today
0:32
then you can get your hands on the free
0:34
pdf version of the lesson notes
0:37
the link to download it is in the description
0:39
of this video and as everyone always asks me
0:42
yes the PDF is free
0:44
it's all free let's firstly talk about
0:48
why the schwar is important
0:50
for you to learn
0:51
the schwar sound is the most common vowel sound
0:54
in English so it's one of the most useful
0:57
vow sounds for you to learn
0:59
by learning to pronounce the schah
1:01
it will help you sound more natural
1:03
and fluid when you're speaking
1:05
in English it will also help you to
1:08
understand fast speech and native speakers
1:11
much better so let's look at how to pronounce the schah
1:15
in English thewwa is a short
1:18
Central and relaxed vowel sound
1:21
you need to relax your whole mouth
1:23
so no smiling no raising your tongue no doing
1:27
anything literally do nothing
1:30
just open your mouth a tiny little bit so the sound
1:33
can leave your mouth
1:35
and then you produce
1:37
a uh so not e not a not
1:41
o uh super relaxed
1:44
let's practice the schwa at the start of words
1:47
the first one we have is
1:57
ago ago around so make sure that you're not pronouncing
2:05
these with a strong vowel
2:07
for example a and you're not saying
2:10
about along ago around
2:14
it's about along ago
2:17
around it's very very weak
2:20
now let's practice the schah in the middle of words
2:23
support so not support
2:29
Supply chocolate chocolate I don't want to hear chocolate
2:38
or chocolate chocolate two syllables
2:43
okay and the second one
2:44
is weak L chocolate
2:50
problem and now let's practice the schah at the end of
2:57
agenda computer extra so what do you notice
3:12
about the position of the schwar sound
3:14
in these words they're all in Weak
3:18
syllables the schah is weak
3:21
it only appears in
3:23
unstressed syllables so you will never find awah
3:27
in a stressed syllable
3:29
example with the word
3:32
about about has the stress
3:35
so uh is weak
3:37
and in this case it uses the schah
3:39
about the same with
3:42
a gender it's not
3:44
agenda a gen D
3:47
the stress is on the second syllable
3:49
here uh and du at the end
3:52
are both weak and here they use the schw
3:56
a gender a gender
3:59
now not every unstressed
4:01
weak syllable in English
4:02
uses the schah that's something to bear in mind
4:06
but a lot of them do
4:08
so also keep that in mind
4:10
so we've looked at the schah
4:12
in word stress now let's look at the schah
4:15
in sentence stress in English
4:17
you have content words
4:18
and function words content words are the important
4:22
words in your sentence
4:24
they carry the content
4:25
they carry the meaning
4:26
and they only have one form
4:29
a strong wrong form
4:30
function words on the other hand are the little unimportant
4:34
grammatical words we use to construct
4:36
the sentences so they don't really carry
4:39
much meaning and much importance
4:41
these are things like
4:43
articles conjunctions or prepositions
4:47
now because these words aren't so important
4:50
you'll find that they have a strong form of pronunciation
4:53
and a weak form of pronunciation
4:56
to learn more about sentence stress
4:58
in detail and to know more about which words are strong and weak and
5:02
content and function words
5:04
I have a full video All About sentence
5:06
stress I'll link it down below for you in the description
5:09
you can go check it out after watching this one
5:12
but for now we're just going to focus on those weak
5:15
function words so you use the weak
5:17
form of the function words
5:19
when you're saying normal sentences
5:21
when you're speaking normally
5:23
and naturally and those weak forms
5:26
usually not always but usually
5:28
contain a sound let me give you an example
5:32
this sentence here imagine we meet for the first time
5:36
and you say hi what's your name and I say
5:38
I am Emma it sounds quite robotic
5:41
and why is that it's because I'm using the strong form of
5:45
am here it sounds more natural to use the weak form
5:49
um so we're using the schw
5:52
I am Emma I am memma
5:54
here's another example he
5:56
was an architect he was an architect
6:01
it sounds like I'm really angry with you so I'm really stressing
6:04
those unimportant little words
6:07
so to make it sound more natural
6:09
we use the schw
6:10
he was an architect
6:14
he was an architect
6:16
notice that when you use the schah in these little function
6:19
words you can speak
6:21
much more quickly and you sound a lot more natural
6:25
if you'd like more examples
6:26
of function Words which change to a weak form
6:29
and you want to practice them I've included
6:32
lots more examples in the downloadable
6:34
PDF for you so remember you can go and download that
6:38
next I want to talk about some spelling rules and word endings
6:41
which use the schah
6:43
we'll start with the word endings
6:45
these are a r
6:47
e r o r
6:50
and r e keep in mind that most British
6:53
accents are non rotic
6:55
a non rotic accent
6:57
basically means that they don't pronounce prounce the r
7:00
at the end of words or they don't pronounce the r in certain
7:03
cases here I'm just talking
7:05
specifically about the word endings
7:08
so in most British English
7:10
accents they don't pronounce the r at the end of words
7:14
however there is a little
7:15
little tiny teeny tiny
7:18
exception if the next word
7:20
starts with another vowel sound
7:23
then that R will be
7:25
pronounced I will come back to that in more detail
7:28
in a moment for now let's just practice some words which contain
7:32
those four different word
7:34
endings starting with popular
7:38
popular so try not to say that r
7:41
at the end teacher
7:59
perform meter meter now going back to the point I made before
8:13
about when the next word starts with another vowel sound we insert
8:17
that R sound let's just practice that for a second
8:21
and I'll show you more what I mean by this
8:23
so let's take this example
8:25
she's a popular Lady
8:27
Popular lady we're not going to pronounce the r
8:30
in popular simply because the next word starts with a consonant
8:35
sound so popular lady
8:38
no R however she was popular
8:41
in school she was
8:44
popular in school notice
8:47
now I'm adding that linking
8:49
a that R sound
8:51
back into popular the reason for adding that R sound
8:55
is to help us join
8:56
to the next word is to help transition
8:59
between those two vowel sounds
9:01
so we're not going to say popular
9:03
in cuz it's like
9:05
we like to add sounds
9:07
in between vowels to help us transition
9:10
in English so it sounds more natural to say
9:13
she was popular in school
9:16
popular school if you'd like to learn more about linking vowels and learning more
9:21
about this R linking
9:23
I have a full video
9:24
all about it I will link it down below in the description
9:28
for you now something
9:29
interesting for you to learn
9:31
is that any vowel
9:33
letter can be pronounced
9:35
as awah now don't cry yet and think oh my goodness
9:39
but then if every vowel letter can be awah
9:42
how do I know
9:44
when to pronounce thewwa
9:46
it's very easy and very simple
9:48
Don't Panic basically if that vowel
9:52
is in the position
9:53
of a weak syllable
9:55
so if that syllable
9:56
is not stressed it usually usually not always but it usually
10:01
is awah sound I'll show you what I mean
10:04
starting with the spelling
10:05
a we have sofa
10:09
sofa the so we're not going to say
10:12
sofa sofa it's a lot weaker
10:15
in English and why is that is because that second syllable
10:19
with f is weak it's unstressed
10:22
so we use aw
10:24
next is the letter
10:25
e open so not
10:27
open o open open
10:31
the next is the letter I
10:33
and we have pencil
10:35
pencil so that weak syllable
10:38
pen e strong vowel
10:41
s s because it's very weak because it's not stress
10:46
we're using awah the next is with the spelling
10:48
o this time we have two o's and two schwas
10:52
and it makes sense
10:53
because they're both in Weak
10:56
syllables condition the only stressed
11:01
syllable here is D it's that middle one
11:04
and it uses a stronger vowel
11:06
so the other two
11:08
are schwas because they're unstressed
11:10
syllables yeah so don't panic about when do I pronounce the schw
11:14
if it's a weak syllable
11:16
nine times out of 10
11:18
it's probably going to be
11:19
awah and the last one with the spelling
11:22
U we have support
11:25
support the stress goes on the second syllable
11:28
so the one because it's unstressed
11:31
because it's weak it has a
11:33
now you know I
11:34
I'm probably repeating myself a million times here but it so you understand that
11:38
it's not too difficult it's not too hard
11:41
now let's practice the pronunciation
11:43
of the schah sound in a text
11:46
I will read the text
11:47
slowly so you can listen
11:49
and repeat if you want to hear it even slower
11:52
or even faster then you can change the video settings
11:56
down below somewhere and you can make the video
11:59
faster or slower for you
12:01
okay ready let's read
12:04
a morning at Luna
12:06
Cafe Erica was the manager
12:10
of the busy Luna
12:12
Cafe in the city
12:14
center each morning she would open
12:18
the doors welcoming the aroma
12:22
of coffee and pastries
12:25
one day a handsome
12:28
doctor named Adam a regular
12:32
at the cafe appeared
12:35
unusually tired he ordered
12:38
his usual coffee and a chocolate
12:43
cookie you seem exhausted
12:46
today Erica commented as she served
12:51
him just the usual
12:53
crazy shift at the hospital
12:56
again Adam replied managing a
13:00
smile your coffee is my morning
13:05
rescue as they chatted
13:07
a group of tourists
13:09
entered asking for coffees
13:12
and muffins Erica quickly
13:16
attended to them enjoying
13:18
the Lively Atmosphere by noon
13:22
the cafe was Lively
13:24
with regulars and newcomers
13:27
alike each find finding a moment
13:30
of comfort in their busy
13:33
days while closing the doors
13:36
that evening Erica felt
13:38
a sense of fulfillment
13:41
knowing her small Cafe
13:43
made a big difference
13:46
now I'm going to read the story again
13:48
but at a more natural
13:50
speed you might find it a little bit difficult to Shadow
13:53
this one so if you want to pause
13:55
then feel free okay
13:57
ready let's go a morning
14:00
at Luna Cafe Erica
14:03
was the manager of the busy Luna
14:05
Cafe in the city
14:07
center each morning she would open the doors
14:10
welcoming the aroma of coffee
14:13
and pastries one day a handsome doctor named Adam
14:18
a regular at the cafe
14:20
appeared unusually tired he ordered
14:23
his usual coffee and a chocolate cookie
14:26
you seem exhausted today
14:28
Eric commented as she served
14:30
him just the usual
14:32
crazy shift at the hospital
14:34
again Adam replied managing a smile
14:38
your coffee is my morning
14:40
rescue as they chatted
14:42
a group of tourists
14:43
entered asking for coffees and
14:46
muffins Erica quickly attended to them
14:49
enjoying the Lively Atmosphere
14:52
by noon the cafe was Lively
14:54
with regulars and newcomers
14:56
alike each finding a moment of comfort comfort
14:59
in their busy days
15:01
while closing the doors that evening
15:03
Erica felt a sense of fulfillment
15:06
knowing her small Cafe
15:07
made a big difference
15:09
well done for completing
15:11
this English pronunciation lesson
15:13
all about the schah
15:15
your next step now is to download
15:17
the free pdf lesson notes for this video
15:20
the link to download it is below in the description
15:23
remember that you also get a copy of the story I've read today as
15:27
well so you can practice that alone
15:29
or with your teacher
15:30
remember to give this video a like if you've enjoyed it and found it
15:34
useful and subscribe to my channel if you'd like more videos to help you
15:38
improve your English pronunciation
15:40
and listening skills I'll see you in the next lesson bye-bye
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