American English Pronunciation Blog » pronounce english vowels http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:28:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 American English Pronunciation-The Schwa Vowel Sound http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/the-schwa-vowel-sound-in-american-english/ http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/the-schwa-vowel-sound-in-american-english/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:00:20 +0000 susan http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/?p=73

Read more →]]> Many of you have been asking me about the schwa vowel sound. Here is a brief description.

The schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in North American English. The schwa sounds like “uh”. It is pronounced with the mouth very relaxed. The IPA symbol for schwa is /ə/.

Below are some common words that have the schwa vowel sound. You can see that there are many spellings for this sound.

  • was
  • done
  • does
  • us
  • what
  • tough

When you are speaking American English the vowels in stressed syllables have a long clear sound but the vowels in unstressed syllables are usually reduced. They are said quickly with a low pitch. In fact many vowels in unstressed syllables are so reduced that they sound like a schwa /ə/.

The combination of stressed syllables with long clear vowel sounds and reduced syllables with the schwa vowel sound create a distinctly American English speech rhythm.

]]> http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/the-schwa-vowel-sound-in-american-english/feed/ 0 Pronounce English Blog with Videos http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/pronounce-english-blog/ http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/pronounce-english-blog/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:52:31 +0000 susan http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/?p=57 I just came across this blog called Pronounce English that you can use to practice speaking English. There are some nice short videos where the teacher, Vicky, demonstrates how to pronounce North American English vowel and consonant sounds.

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