The Truth About the Schwa Sound in American English | Introducing the Range and Quality of Sounds

[@leticiadantas1355]

All I wanted was to find someone breaking down the sounds and explaining them but I couldn't find anyone on KZbin doing that until now. I already love this channel haha

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Awesome! So glad to hear that ☺ And thanks for the feedback. Got more like this planned 😎

[@jaewoolee2669]

Josh the hackerman. Maaaaaaan I gotta tell you this, so I wanted to know more deeply about prepositions so I looked up books on Amazon, and one book looked very nice so I bought it, the logic of prepositions, and I liked the content as well, and I thought wow, this author is pretty thorough and creative, and I realized, YOU WROTE THE BOOK WOW. smart guy. keep it up!

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Lol

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

True story haha

[@edflam7555]

Great and unique content!

[@yanwangburke901]

Thanks, Really enjoyed learning form you

[@braulioordenes2607]

Muy bueno tu video me encanto explicas de manera muy cientifica.

[@maximilianoe.diarte6125]

Very interesting and informative! Thank you!

[@moongirl5309]

Oh my goodness!. your amazing, i didn't finish the video yet but you made me understand the most difficult thing for in the whole English. God!، thank you, thank you very much ❤❤❤

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

🙂

[@caparamiro8864]

Thanks a lot this amazing video. So clear , so full of very important details. I enjoyed every minute of it and am looking forward to received many more.Liked and subscribed right away.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

😊

[@vierjaor]

Thank you so much for your videos 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Gene0723]

Interesting. All in all is a shorter and faster sound that replace unstressed vowels.

[@ajitshing8765]

Very nice

[@stevefx6281]

I learned this last week lol, good video tho :D

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That's because you're one of the awesome people who attend the live streams 😎

[@ricardoluizmarcello]

Hello teacher! Thanks for the class! I want to ask you a thing: I noticed there’s other range aspect of Schwa sound. For example in the word GOLDEN. Here the last vowel “E” sounds like schwa sound but it sounds almost like the vowel /ɪ/. Other example: SEVEN. We do not say exactly “/sɛvən/“. People say: something like /sɛvɪn. Obviously it is not a strong /ɪ/, but it is not a clear schwa. So I understand the Schwa sound has the range you said in this video, but there’s ALSO other aspect depending on the word, where it could be more like other weak vowels. Am I right?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That's one way to look at it, buy I would disagree. That's a variation. In many words that use the true schwa, you can use IH or UH. IH is not part of UH. Some people say gol-duhn, some say gol-didn't, some say both. It doesn't really matter

[@ricardoluizmarcello]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I think it is amazing how language works. There are different points of view and Internet is fantastic for learners! Look at the opinion of this coach: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKiQh2yQe8Zpfc0 Thanks so much, teacher!

[@maurocarvalho1148]

In your examples, /n/ is a syllabic consonant. It might be said "goldn" or "sevn" and still be understood like "golden" and "seven" by native English speakers.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Sorry, this was in the spam folder and I didn't see it. A syllabic N is another variation in addition to using a schwa or the IH sound. The syllablic N is a special part of what I call "eating vowels", which I should be making a lesson on this week 🙂

[@deeperera5946]

I have a question- when we are writing a word, if we come across a Schwa sound, how do we know what sound to write in that place. Thanks

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

English spelling isn't phonetic. The schwa can be represented with any vowel letter (a, e, i, o, u). Not even a literate native speaker would know which letter to write and we don't even have "schwa" as a concept unless we learn about phonetics. Natives learn how to listen and speak first (based on sound) and then start learning how to read and write, and we have to learn all the spelling patterns and exceptions just like you do. The way English is usually taught to non-natives mixes up spelling and sound in a really, really, really bad way that hurts your English. You have to separate sound from spelling and learn them as two separate things. That being said, there are common spelling patterns for many sounds (which I try to give you in the main pronunciation and ear training course (kzbin.info/aero/PLF9KfAK-sCVPkRiYT59txEQE2DV6dYI49)), but there are almost always exceptions.

[@shyambaranwal727]

Amazing explanation of schwa.... thanks so much please.👍👌🙏🙏

[@tr3buh]

How about the ɜ: sound? It is not supposed to be a "long" schwa?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I had to look that up. Apparently it's a British sound. This video is specifically for American English. Not only does the "schwa" work in a special way in American English specifically, but the sound you're referring to doesn't exist in American English.

[@Ygor-qn3uf]

I would like to know if while I'm trying to pronounce... I would have to open my mouth more, like... downwards or sideways, some people say that the correct way is sideways, And others say it's down you know?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

You never have to open sideways. That doesn't even make sense. The jaw setting for American English is a bit more open than many languages, but more importantly, you need the right tongue height setting. See this video for more info: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXLGiq13ipKDr9k

[@Ygor-qn3uf]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I watched but I don't get it well, About the Schwa and "ʌ" Should I open the same way? My mouth.. So the difference is only the sound? That is loud, Since we don't have side opening. Or is the opening a little lower than the schwa? I'm sorry about many questions about it, I'm just really confused, Many people mostly foreign teachers teach different

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

@Ygor-qn3uf the mouth doesn't actually have to open too much for the upside down V, but it commonly does. It's basically a clearer, more open version of the center of gravity (from mouth posture), which itself is a clearer, more open version of the true schwa. The key is to keep the sound in about the same place, but in reality, you NEVER have to use the upside down V. Using the center of gravity instead will always work

[@Ygor-qn3uf]

@@NativeEnglishHacks Wow thank you, So bottom line Eu pronuncio ele de forma mais alta e Clara, e Minha Boca cai pra baixo? Essa é a diferença dele pro schwa? I pronounce it louder and clearer, and My Mouth drops down? Is this the difference between it and schwa?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

@Ygor-qn3uf In simplest terms, yes. But don't focua so much on descriptions. Learn to hear what you're producing and compare it to a native. Mouth posture is also imprtant. If you don't have that, it's almost guaranteed you'll never produce the sound 100% correctly.

[@haroldorozcoolis3008]

Is it the same in British English?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I don't know. Probably not since British English has a different mouth posture.

[@John2corner]

What happens when saying words like Unmatched and Understand then?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

What do you mean?

[@John2corner]

@@NativeEnglishHacks so for example, /ˌʌn.dɚˈstænd/ Accent on "S" but it sounds like "ʌn." is not weak either. How strongly should you say that shawa??

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

There is no weak and strong, just a continuum from more open and fully pronounced to more closed and reduced (shorter, faster, quieter). It doesn't really matter where the sound is or if it has primary stress or secondary stress (like in "understand"). If you say the word more slowly and/or clearly, it will be closer to the upside V and if you say it faster and/or less clearly, it will be closer to the upside down e. This is generally true of all words that use these two symbols. If the syllable is unstressed, it's extremely likely to come out as a regular schwa, but super clear enunciation (especially combined with slowing down, usually for emphasis) can change it into the upside down V. If it's a stressed syllable (primary or secondary, especially primary), it's extremely likely to come out as the upside V, but lazier and especially faster speech can change it into the regular schwa. The sound is basically the same regardless. The only real difference is the relative length and how clearly it's pronounced, which is mostly determined by speed (and whether or not you emphasize). That's why I say it's dynamic.

[@John2corner]

​@@NativeEnglishHacks Thank you coach! sensei! thank you for your great explanation couldn't be better

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Hai! Douitashimashite :) Lol, I still feel weird being called "sensei". But I'm glad my explanation was useful!

[@IbelieveandfollowJesus]

Interesting. Thank you in Jesus Christ!

[@hansschmitt116]

At 5:17 you say that ə and ʌ are technically not the exact same sound, but they are "actually" the same sound. I think this sounds "weird" and contradicting because you use the same word "sound" for different things. The exact physical sound is usually called a phone (see eg. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_(phonetics)), written with an IPA symbol between square brackets. Then these phones can be modified within some range without changing the meaning of a word in a given language. These phones are usually called allophones and stand for a phonem in a given language. Phonems are usually written with an IPA symbol between slashes. At 5:39 you say that the first vowel of the word "other" is pronounced with an [ʌ], but becomes an [ə] when the word is pronounced quickly. However, I still hear an [ʌ] sound that is clearly different from the schwa at the end of the word. At 6:28 you say that [əv] is not a reduction of [ʌv], and explain that when [ə] is pronounced more clearly, it becomes [ʌ]. However I don't see why this shouldn't be a reduction. At 8:28 you say that [ʌ] is actually just the fully enunciated, very clearly pronounced version of what we call the schwa sound in American English. I disagree, because you can not generally use [ʌ] to replace a schwa when fully enunciating a word, eg. unstressed "a" is pronounced [ə], but the stressed form is [eɪ]. This is because the schwa can be a reduced form of different vowels.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

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