Say these words out loud (the Schwa sound is bold):

1) a

2) the

3) about

4) around

5) present

6) father

7) banana

8) carrot

9) atlas

10) illness

11) offend

12) answer

13) letter

14) alone

15) sofa

16) system

17) supply

18) circus


Now say these sentences out loud (the Schwa sound is bold):

1) I have a carrot and a banana.

2) The atlas contains a lot of maps.

3) He talked about his illness.

4) I will answer this letter.

5) Father went around the apartment.

7) The company will supply the telephones.

8) I was sitting alone on the sofa.

9) The performance in the circus was amazing.

10) He suggested a system.
==
What is the schwa sound? The schwa sound says, "uh". All vowels will make the schwa
sound in some words. Here are some examples of words with the schwa sound:
The letter a: about, banana, was
The letter e: the, open, travel, item
The letter i: animal, family
The letter o: above, gallon, dinosaur, another
The letter u: particular


The schwa sound often times happens in an unstressed syllable.
This might be confusing to a beginning reader.
It may be best to introduce schwa as a sound a vowel can make.
==
The schwa is the most frequent vowel sound in English speech. It gives English a unique
sound and rhythm, as well as being a major factor to an English accent when Anglophones
speak other languages.
How to make the sound: make the schwa with your jaws slightly open, your lips relaxed,
and your tongue in the same position as when you wake up (everyone uses the schwa upon
wakening!). Schwa is nearly always short.
Where is it found?

a, am, an, and, are, as, at, but, can, do, for, had, has, have, her, him, his, if, in, is, it, its, of,
on, or, than, that, the, their, them, to was, will, with, you, your.

in-, suc-, to-, ad-, be-, un-, -ible, -able, -ish, -ment, etcetera.

able, according, account, action, affair, afraid, ago, agree, allow, alone, along, amount, animal, arrive,
article, attempt, away, battle, beautiful, became, become, began, begin, believe, belong, broken,
business,
captain, certain, certainly, character, children, college, command, common, company, complete,
condition,
consider, contain, continue, control, decide, declare, degree, demand, desire, destroy, difference,
different,
direct, direction, discover, distance, double, enemy, England, enough, even, experience, family, famous,
forest, garden, general, gentlemen, given, golden, happen, heaven, human, husband, hundred, idea,
important, Indian, industry, interest, island, kitchen, listen, little, market, material, method, million,
minute,
moment, mountain, movement, nation, national, natural, necessary, notice, office, officer, often, open,
opinion, people, period, pleasant, position, possible, practice, prepare, probably, problem, promise,
public,
purpose, question, reason, receive, regard, remain, remember, reply, report, require, result, return,
season,
second, service, settle, seven, several, single, special, station, success sudden, suddenly, supply,
suppose,
system, table, taken, thousand, today, together, tomorrow, travel, trouble, uncle, various, village, visit,
woman, women.
=
Exercise One:
Find all the possible schwas in the following sentences. Then read them aloud.
1. It's five to two and we're late. 2. A table for four, please, around seven if possible.
3. She can type 60 words per minute. 4. George'll cut them into smaller pieces if you ask him.
5. Pass the spoons and forks, please. 6. I'm going to appeal this decision, you know.
7. The President said that that was his policy. 8. You could've informed me about it.
9. Do you have to work late this evening? 10. Good-bye, see you later.
11. I don't know, but we could ask them. 12. I thought it was really exciting.
13. Where are my leather gloves? 14. Marilyn is taller than Charlotte.
15. There were seven or eight of them present. 16. Pierre is famous everywhere he goes.
17. The officers expressed several opinions. 18. The train services many villages around here.
19. Can you remember the directions there? 20. There are a lot of mountains in British Columbia.
Exercise Two: Listen and Repeat
Repeat the phrases below. The underlined word will contain the schwa.
each and every cold as ice feel at ease
John had gone That would be wonderful. These are cheap.
three or four Wait for your brother. None have broken.
box of apples cup of tea we can stay
more than that Get some sleep. close to home
that was that There are some. ten to two.
// at the first syllable of a word[edit]
about - admire - again - alone - along - among - appeal - appear - arise - around - away
/b/: balloon - banana - Bolivia
/k/: capacity - community - computer - consider - continue - Kentucky
/m/: machine - material - Morocco
/n/: Nebraska
/p/: patrol - police
/s/: supply - support
others: protect
// in the middle of a word[edit]
as "a": Canada - company - organise - relative
as "e": agency - camera - concentrate - enemy
as "i": family - Philippines - policy
as "o": Christopher - customer - ignorant - introduce
as "u": circumstance - measurement - Portugal
as "y": analysis - Pennsylvania
as "ai": certainly
// at the last syllable of a word[edit]
Africa - America - agenda - Argentina - Barbara - camera - Canada - China - comma - data -
drama - extra - formula - idea - Oklahoma - opera - pizza
/d/[edit]
method
/l/[edit]

peope pip]
/l/
peope /pipl/
See also poei o
able - label - level - local - Michael - table - towel
Homophones: capital - Capitol; principal - principle
/m/[edit]
See also poei o
awesome - bottom - freedom - maximum - minimum - problem - random - symptom - system
unwritten schwa: criticism - mechanism - optimism - orgasm - prism - rythm - tourism
/n/[edit]

eve iv]
/n/
eve /ivn/
See also poei o
common - foreign - London - reason - recent - season - woman
With -en: children - happen - lengthen - often - sudden - weaken;
listen; often; soften
fatten - frighten - rotten - tighten;
With -ion: action - fashion - junction - mention - passion - station;
/p/[edit]
develop
/r/[edit]
American
dictionaries

letter /let/
Standard

r
letter /letr/
With -re (American spelling -er): centre - fibre - litre - metre - theatre
With -er: consider - offer - over - summer - teacher - under
With -ber: December - member - November - number - October - remember - September
With -ter: after - computer - character - daughter - letter - matter - quarter - sister - water - winter
With -ther: another - brother - father - feather - leather - mother - other - weather - whether
With -ar: angular - cellular - dollar - grammar - particular - popular - regular - similar
With -ure: exposure - measure - pleasure - pressure - procedure
With -ture: culture - feature - future - manufacture - nature - picture - structure - temperature
With -our (American spelling -or): behaviour - colour - favour - honour - humour - labour -
neighbour
With -or: author - color - error - governor - major - minor - professor - senior
With -tor: actor - director - doctor - editor - factor - investor - monitor - motor - sector - visitor
/ar/ or /a.r/ - /ar/ or /a.r/[edit]
Some words (in theory) can be pronounced with a triphthong, like "fire" as /far/ or "hour" as /ar/,
ad oer a a diae ike "uer" a /a.r/ or "power" a /pa.r/. In practice the disyllabic
prouiaio i ued i a word (i ipie "fire" a /fa.r/ and "hour" as
/a.r/).
[3]
See Triphthong.
/ar/
With "-ire": acquire - desire - entire - fire - hire - require - wire
Other: liar - prior
/ar/
With "-our": flour - hour - our - sour
Other: coward - flower - power - shower - tower
/s/[edit]
With -ous: anxious - continuous - curious - dangerous - enormous - famous - nervous - numerous
- obvious - previous - religious - serious - various
With -us: focus - status - Uranus - Venus - versus - virus
With -as: Douglas - Honduras - Kansas - Texas - Thomas
/t/[edit]
Connecticut - pilot