Everything you NEED to Know about the AMERICAN Schwa | Masterclass Compilation

[@YoursTruly-i5p]

Thanks Josh. Happy teaching❤

[@javirodriguez5617]

Hey brother,,,you are amazing...May God bless you..and thank u.

[@jgathayde1]

Thanks for this important information about pronunciation. It’s very difficult to know how good is the placement of my tongue.

[@lalaland51]

Hi there, 😂I have a question. There is this guy on KZbin called Ashwin Gore, I couldn’t include the link due to KZbin policy, but you could look him up on KZbin, keywords American accent and his name. So basically he talks about one simple trick for American English, which comes from the back of the neck. So if you’re using a high placement, and you slightly tuck your head backwards a bit, your voice will sound constrained. The only way to speak when you head is back, is to speak from the belly, thus lower your placement. He also says like imagine you have a mouth from the back of your neck, and try to project from there, it will relax everything you hold in your throat, 😊❤ What do you think as a native speaker, is it true? Thank you so much

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Anything that helps you get the right result is great. But it all seems very odd to me

[@IgorOlikh]

Thank you very much!

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Thank you! 🙂

[@44nina44]

28:37 can the front of the tongue move up rather than sink low during the fully enunciated version, the upside down V, does anything happen to the front-middle, or it's just those features you described-length, quality.. that go up?

[@Pamela-o6b]

Wow absolutely amazing 🤯😧🙌 can you do this for all sounds pleeeease??🙏 Specially i as in "it"❤

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Next up is a vowel lesson compilation 🙂

[@Pamela-o6b]

@@NativeEnglishHacks awesome 🤓🤩🙌

[@YoursTruly-i5p]

Thanks!

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Thank you! I really appreciate it 🙂

[@socalvibe4500]

Thanks a lot really appreciate it:)

[@Tob_JJJJ]

How can i learn to maintain these mouth posture settings. Because on some days i do make meaningful progress but then the next day its like ive never made any progress and i speak english using my native language settings, and i have to take an hour to warm up / apply everything again until it sounds right.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That's 100% normal. Learning to maintain them is the hardest part. Note that, unlike what most people expect, pronunciation (in general, not just posture) is mostly improved outside of conversation. You wouldn't expect to learn the basics of a song and then immediately perform it in front of someone. But language is more complex and it's impossible to monitor all of these things while focusing on communicating. So the key is to build muscle memory (especially through shadowing, but also playing with things throughout the day, and using the exercises I've provided). There is a gap between practice and actual speech that needs to be bridged, but the main thing is to build up muscle memory as best as you can and then try to be mindful of one or two aspects at a time while speaking (like the tongue height). This is more managable and will work it's way into your speech over time, then you can add in another piece. Audacity is a key piece to help bridge this gap, as well

[@fabianuquillas6348]

Hello, I love your American English lessons. However, in this video and a few others about the difference between stressed and unstressed schwa, I get a little confused by the inverted "v" in the English dictionary. It says that there is an unstressed inverted "v", so how is this possible if the schwa and the inverted "v" are the same, but unstressed? In the dictionary, there is an unstressed inverted "v", for example: sommelier, and in the Cambridge dictionary, it is transcribed as ˌsʌm.elˈjeɪ. My question is: Is there an unstressed inverted "v" or is it only a schwa?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Just like any other vowel can be stressed or unstressed, the schwa can be stressed or unstressed (I'm not the only one to say this; Dr. Geoff Lindsay agrees) and the inverted V can be stressed or unstressed. There's nothing special about them in terms of stress. It's just that because Americans use them as the range for one sound, if there’s stress, it's more LIKELY to be pronounced as an inverted V; if it's unstressed or said really quickly, it's more LIKELY to be pronounced as a schwa. But there's nothing saying it can't happen to come out as the opposite. This is a classic case of how theory interferes with practical reality and skill. A lot of American pronunciation is much more about statistics and ranges than hard "rules". The dictionary is almost completely useless when it comes to the practical, real-life use of these two sounds. And, if you never use the inverted V, but instead use the center of gravity as a sound (basically half-way between the two and it sounds like a clearer, slightly more open "schwa"), you'll always sound perfect (which I've tested and proven with students). I don't even teach the inverted V at all anymore because the only real difference you have to make isn't between two sounds or between stress and unstressed; it's between the more enunciated, full version and lazy, faster version, which is essentially the same for every other vowel, except we don't see the lazy EE and full EE as two sounds in one range; it's all just EE, either clearer or lazier

[@fabianuquillas6348]

I'm very grateful for your comment, as I now understand perfectly the difference between the stressed and unstressed schwa.