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In spoken American English the schwa (see the image above right) is the relaxed vowel sound that is frequently used for vowel sounds in unstressed syllables.

The schwa sound is made with your tongue in a relaxed position in the center of your mouth. It sounds like “uh”. Now the next part here is very important!

Any vowel can sound like a schwa when it occurs in an unstressed syllable.

Here a a few words that begin with the schwa vowel sound. Since the first syllable in these words is unstressed, the vowel sound is a schwa or ‘uh’.

allow
ahead
around
evaluate
object
offend
unlock
understand

The schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in English. Pronouncing this vowel correctly will help you improve the way you communicate with American English listeners because it will improve the rhythm of your speech.

I teach you how to use the schwa vowel sound so that you can speak English more effectively in my Skype accent reduction course.

Or, if you want to learn from a book check out these excellent and affordable American English pronunciation books.

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Difficult words include: financial, initial, development, intelligent and negligible.

There are not a lot of accent reduction books that focus on the difference between the nasal /n/ sound and the liquid /l/ sounds.

Here is an audio lesson from HKUST that you can use to practice these two sounds.

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Oh, oh! That’s not true at all.

If you speak English too quickly it’s probably contributing to your accent.

Native speakers do say some words quickly, but not all words. The most important words are lengthened and said with emphasis. We call these content and focus words.

Here are some ways to pace your speech in ways that will help native speakers understand you.

1. Pause between phrases (thought groups) and sentences. This will  help your listeners keep up with the words you are saying.
2. Bring attention to the content and focus words by lengthening them and raising your pitch. You can say the less important words quickly.

Using the strategies described here (and more advanced strategies such as non final and series intonation) will add vocal variety to your speech and create a better melody.

Accent reduction coaching will teach you to use these types of strategies to slow down your speech in a way that makes it easy for American listeners to understand.

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There is no easy answer. It really depends on a variety of factors. These include:

1. Your Listening Skills

You must be able to hear the difference between the sounds and patterns in your native language and the sounds and patterns of American English. This is really important. If you can’t hear the difference you won’t be able to make changes.

2. Techniques and strategies

Once you understand what sounds and patterns from your native language are contributing to your accent you need to learn some accent reduction techniques. Accent reduction books and classes will teach you specific techniques you can use to change the sounds and patterns that you currently use when you speak English.

3. Time spent on focused practice

Once you learn the correct accent reduction techniques,  you must practice every day! Daily practice will help your mouth and tongue develop the new ‘muscle memory’ that they need for you to articulate American English sounds correctly.

The more you practice and repeat the exercises (with the correct feedback), the more you’ll improve. You simply must practice a sound or pattern over and over for it to become a habit.

One of the best ways to practice is to use an American Accent Audio Course. That’s because you can download the lessons to your phone or computer to listen and practice again and again.

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Content words are usually key nouns or verbs. Since they are important to the meaning of a sentence they are said a bit louder and longer than other words.

When you say a content word, the vowel in the stressed syllable is lengthened and said with a slightly higher pitch.

Focus words (sometimes referred to as pitch words) have a bit more pitch and length than the other content words. I like to say that the stressed syllable in the focus word is the nucleus of the sentence. This stressed syllable gets slightly more pitch and length.

So what happens if you don’t employ stress and pitch when you speak?

1. Native speakers don’t understand which part of the message is the most important. They don’t know which words to pay attention to.

2. Your speech sounds monotonous to native speakers because they can’t pick up a rhythm.

3. This means that native speakers have to concentrate extra hard to understand you. They get tired and sometimes they give up.

Even if your your vowel and consonant sounds are not perfect you should learn how to use stress and pitch correctly. This will help native speakers understand you more easily.

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American English speakers link many words together, especially the smaller function words. Linking creates smooth transitions between words in a phrase or sentence and gives your speech a smooth sound.

Here are 3 rules for linking words when you are speaking English.

1. When the same consonant sound is found at the end of the first word and the beginning of the next word pronounce them as one long sound (Consonant +Consonant). For example:

• team mate sounds like teammate
• that time sounds like thattime
• bus stop sounds like busstop

2. When a consonant sound ends one word and is followed by a vowel sound make the consonant sound part of the second word (Consonant +Vowel). For example:

• save it sounds like savit
• called up sounds like calledup
• turn around sounds like turnaround

3. When a vowel sound is at the end of one word and the beginning of the next word add a /y/ or a /w/ sound between them (Vowel + Vowel). For example:

• sounds like do/w/ it
• sounds like see /y/it
• sounds like I/y/ am

Here is some more information on linking and liaisons in American English.
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Why should you use contractions? Here are a couple of reasons.

Using contractions will make your spoken English smoother. You’ll sound less choppy to native speakers. Using contractions will help you reduce function words and emphasize focus words. Contractions will also  help you speak with a good rhythm.

Here is an example:

• Would have–>would’əv
• Would you have been there? –> Would you’ əv been there?

If you want to learn more about pronouncing contractions, check out Mastering the American Accent with Audio CDs . This is a great book with a nice section on pronouncing contractions.

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1. When X is followed by a stressed vowel it is pronounced like /gz/.
• exact –>egzact

What’s his exact location?

• exactly –>egzactly

She’s exactly right.

2. When X is followed by a consonant sound it is pronounced like /ks/.

• extreme–> ekstreme

His behavior is very extreme.

• context   contekst

I understand the word when I hear it in context.

When the letter X is also pronounced as /ks/ when it comes at the end of a word.

• tax–. taks

When the letter S follows X it sounds like /ez/.

You can follow the link here to read more accent reduction techniques for Spanish speakers.

Here is my answer:

The ‘a’ in want has an /ɑ/ sound. This is the same vowel sound in the word father.

The ‘o’ in the won’t has an /ow/ sound. This is the same vowel sound in the word loan.

The word final ‘t’ in both words is held or even deleted, depending on how the words are linked to the surrounding sounds.

If you are looking for an audio course that will teach you all the American English vowel sounds, you might want to take a look at Best Accent Training.