425. The Schwa: How One TINY Sound Can Make a HUGE Difference [Revisiting favorite episodes]

Hey everyone.

Today we are again revisiting an old episode and that is probably one of my favorite episodes. And it was also a very popular episode for a very long time. I think it was like the top most listened to episode on the podcast. And it's funny because it's about pronunciation and about the most interesting yet confusing sounds that exist in English. But also one of the most important sounds that you should know if you want to simplify your pronunciation. Speak with clarity and with confidence. And that sound is the schwa. You have probably heard me talk about it in almost every other pronunciation video and today I'm going to explain it, why it's important, and how to identify the schwa sound when pronouncing words. Okay, so let's listen to this fun episode.

You're listening to the Influency podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, a pronunciation expert, fluency coach, and a proud non native speaker. With over 16 years of experience teaching, I am here to share with you all my secrets. I on how to show up in English clearly with confidence and freedom. On this podcast, I'll provide step by step strategies, lessons, stories and practical tips to keep you inspired and motivated on your English journey. Are you ready? Let's do it. Today we're going to talk about pronunciation a bit. You know that pronunciation is my thing, and notice how I said thing without popping my g sound at the end because it ends with an ng. So you don't really release the g here thing, and I hope you're practicing it with me right now. Anyway, pronunciation is my thing. And the thing that is my real thing, the thing that I'm really obsessed about is drumroll. Ladies and gentlemen, the schwa. Yes, the schwa sound. The secret of American pronunciation. The sound that is unnoticeable, yet once you start hearing it, you can't stop hearing it because my friends, it's everywhere. If you don't know what the schwa is, then you obviously haven't been watching any of my YouTube videos because I think I mentioned the schwa at least like five times in every pronunciation video, especially when I teach intonation and prosody, which is basically intonation and stress and rhythm. And I talk about it a lot because it's the most common vowel sound in American English. It and it's essential for pronunciation, but also for intonation and the rhythm and reductions and knowing where to put the stress in a sentence. And we need to understand this concept. And this is what this episode is all about. So let's get started. Let's first of all, understand how to make the schwa sound. Well, basically, the last thing you need to think about is how you make it. Because if you try to make it, if you try too hard, then you're losing the whole purpose of this sound. Because this is the most effortless sound a human mouth can make. And it sounds something like this. Can you hear it? So, as I said, you just need to let go of your mouth, of your jaw, of your tongue again, no G at the end, tongue, and just release a sound and a really short one. Now, if you hear something like E, that means your tongue is too high. If you hear something like your mouth is too open, if you hear your lips are rounded, so relax your lips, don't open your mouth, relax the tongue, Release a sound. Now, if it's hard for you to pronounce the sound, let's try to pronounce a consonant cluster like kg, like a K sound and a G, KG or pb. While it may be easier for you to pronounce this consonant cluster, you'll be surprised to hear that there is a schwa hiding there between those two sounds, because you have to make a sound between those two consonants. Because both of those consonants, like the P and the B and the K and the G, are produced in the same place. So for you to pronounce both of these sounds, you have to put a break between them. And that mini break, that mini vowel in between is the schwa. A mini schwa. Okay? That's the schwa. That's the most common vowel sound in American English. And this is also the neutral sound that they make when someone asks them a question. And them native speakers. When someone asks a native English speaker a question and they're looking for the right words, they would probably make a sound. And that sound is very likely to be a schwa. Let me think about it. Right, Right before the m sound. That's an. That's a schwa sound. That's the neutral sound. They don't think about this sound. And this is why, if you were to ask a native speaker, what is the schwa, a native speaker who hasn't studied linguistics or pronunciation, they would have no idea, because it's not something that you learn. And it's not a legit sound. It's not a real sound. It's not like I would say, hey, when do you use the O sound? They'd be like, o go, okay, that's easy. But the sound is elusive and tricky, and this is why it's also tricky for Non native speakers, because sometimes we don't even detect it when people speak. And I'm going to talk about that in just a sec. But let's go back to pronouncing the sound. So we said that to pronounce the schwa sound, the jaw is really relaxed and you just make a sound as your lips are super neutral. We can find it in words like about, around holiday, so f. Okay, so we looked at a few examples where it's at the beginning, the middle, and at the end. To understand when to use the schwa, we need to understand something about the stress system of American English. Because a schwa is not a pure vowel sound that just exists in particular syllables or is represented with a certain set of letters. And then, you know, okay, so when there is oe, then we know that this is a schwa. No, because a schwa is something that happens to a vowel when it's unstressed. A schwa is a reduction of a vowel sound when the syllable is not stressed. So if. This is why we need to talk about the stress system of American English. In English, there are three types of stresses. It's how you stress a syllable in a word, okay? And a syllable is a small unit within the word. So, for example, in the word holiday, holiday has three syllables. Usually it's the number of vowels in the word, not the vowel letters, but the vowel sounds. Hol. Day. Three syllables. Holiday. Now, notice that I didn't say holiday because the middle vowel is a schwa sound. So I reduced the vowel there to a schwa. Ha. Le day. So we have three vowels here and three syllables. As a result, each syllable has a certain type of stress. So let's talk about those types of stresses. First, we have the primary stress. A primary stress is the most dominant syllable in a word. It is longer, louder, and higher in pitch. And every content word must have a primary stress and only one. So in the word holiday, the primary stress falls on the first syllable. Ha. Ha. Holiday. Right. So it has this emphasis there. Continue. The primary stress here is on the second syllable. Continue. Graduation. What's the primary stress here? Graduation. A. A Graduaay. Higher in pitch, longer than the rest and a little louder. A. That's the primary stress. University. What's the primary stress here? Ver. Right. Longer. Louder. Higher in pitch. Great. Now, once you establish what the primary stress is, now it's time to identify if the other syllables receive a secondary stress or a weak stress. Now, while you can only have one primary stress in a word, you can have A few secondary stresses and a few weak stresses. Now you're probably asking yourself, but what is a secondary stress and what is a weak stress? So let's start at the end. A weak stress is a schwa, okay? Which technically means that if a syllable doesn't get a primary stress or a secondary stress, the vowel kind of disappears. The vowel says, okay, I didn't get any stress. I'm out of here. And it checks out, and all you're left with is this small, insignificant sound, the schwa. Don't tell the schwa I said that. Okay, so you have the primary stress, which is the stressed syllable, and we'll talk a little bit about how to find the primary stress. But that is a whole nother episode, so we will do that in a different episode. For now, let's say you know what the primary stress is, and if you don't, then just Google it. Type how to pronounce and then the word on Google and you'll see the word written out phonetically. And then the bold syllable is the primary stress. So you know that this is the syllable that needs to be longer, louder, and higher in pitch. And make sure you really do go higher in pitch for that word and that you're making it a little longer, especially if in your language, all the syllables receive the same beat. So louder, longer, higher in pitch. And then. So we figured that out. The rest of the syllables you need to understand if the syllable receives any kind of vowel sound or it's reduced completely. So a secondary stress is a pure vowel. So you basically pronounce it as you pronounce everything else. You just don't go higher in pitch or longer or louder. You just pronounce it normally. So think of the secondary stress as your default pronunciation, or it's reduced to a schwa, which is a reduced vowel, this neutral sound. Now, I know, I know it's not clear just yet, so I'm going to give you a bunch of examples. But again, we have three types of stresses. The primary stress, and there's only one of that in a word, it's longer, louder, higher in pitch, or a secondary stress, which is a pure vowel, and that's how you usually pronounce the vowels. So here you basically don't need to change anything, or it's reduced to a schwa, which we will assume right now that you are not pronouncing. Okay? And because it's a sound that non native speakers usually don't pay attention to, they don't hear it and therefore they don't pronounce it. And this is exactly what we're trying to do here to get you to hear it and to recognize it and to start using it to become more clear. Now, let's take the word connect. Took me a sec to think of a word. Let's take the word connect. Now, English is not a phonetic language, but most English learners begin their encounter with the language through reading and writing. And as a result, the representation of the written word is being branded in their brains. And a lot of languages are phonetic, so they assume that what they see in English is what they should say. So the word connect is very likely to be pronounced as connect, with a little tiny O sound in between. Connect. Now, first, we need to see what is the primary stress. Is it connect or is it connect? Raise your hand if you think it's the second one. And if you're raising your hand right now on the street or in the car with your kids, then you're absolutely right. It's the second syllable, connect. Longer, louder, higher in pitch. But if we were to pronounce it as connect, the next question you need to ask yourself, because you know that the nect is the primary stress at the beginning, a secondary stress. So do we really need that O sound there, or can we reduce it? Meaning, do we really. Can we just, like, eliminate the vowel there and see what happens? Can we say connect, or do we need to say connect? If our default pronunciation is connect and you reduce that o sound and it still sounds okay to you. Connect. Or even better, it's a schwa. Connect. Connect. Let's take another word. I'll say it with my Israeli establish. It's what you have in wine and liquor stores. Alcohol. Now, we have an a there. If we think of all the vowels, we have an a, an o, and another o. And first we need to ask ourselves, what is the primary stress?

Alcohol.

Right. I'm starting to become more American now, by the way. If you're not sure how to identify the primary stress, just either clap, snap your fingers, nod your head, or stomp your foot when you say the word alcohol. Do it with me.

Alcohol.

On what syllable did you clap? Nod your head, snap your fingers. The first syllable, right?

Al.

Al. If not, then you will have to tune into my episode where I talk future episode where I talk about finding the primary stress in a word. But if it's still not clear to you, remember you always have Google. Always have Google, so. Or any kind of pronunciation dictionary. Now, the al is the primary stress. If I try to pronounce it again phonetically.

Alcohol.

Let's start with the second syllable. What happens if I drop it?

Alcohol. Alcohol.

Does it sound okay or even better? Or I can put it in brackets, Actually, does it sound okay, open brackets or even better, close brackets? When I drop the sound?

Alcohol.

I would say yes.

Alcohol. Alcohol.

Now, I'm deliberately kind of messing up the last sound because I'm trying to get. Get you to tell me if the last syllable is a pure vowel or a reduced vowel. Is it a schwa? So right now let's say I'm saying alcohol. What happens if I reduce it?

Alcohol. Alcohol.

Does that sound okay?

Alcohol.

If you cringe a little, which is what I did, right? Now, when you reduce something, if it doesn't feel right, if it just doesn't fit the way the word sounds in your head, then it is not a schwa, okay? So I'm giving you really scientific tools here, and one of it is your sheer intuition. Not really scientific, right? But trust your intuition here. So you try to drop it. If it seems okay and sounds even better, it is very likely a schwa. But if it sounds off and weird, you need a vowel there, buddy. And in this case, it's the Oz and father.

Alcohol. Alcohol.

Now let's try another word. America. And I'm going to say it with my accent, with an accent. America. So we have A, E, I, and another A. Right? America. If I pronounce it according to the vowels, okay? But English is not a phonetic language, and it means that not what. What you see is not what you get. And again, the first thing you need to do is to identify what the primary stress is. America. On what syllable would you snap your fingers, clap your hands, nod your head? America. The me. Right. Now, what can you reduce? Think about it. I'm going to give you, like, 10 seconds to think about it. From all these vowels. From all these vowels, what can you reduce? What don't we have to pronounce? So we already agreed that the me is the primary stress. So we pronounce it. It's the E as in red. But what about the rest? Do we pronounce the A, the re, the k? The truth is that we don't pronounce any of those vowels because all of them are reduced to a schwa. America. America. America. Yes. So there is no A in America, and there is definitely no e in America. And going back to the example we had at the beginning, Holiday. Again, what is reduced here? Ha is the primary stress. Ha. And do we say liquid? We could holiday. But if we reduce it, does it sound okay? Holiday. Yes. And it's even better. Holiday. Now, I want you to notice something. When a vowel is reduced to a schwa, it doesn't only change the pronunciation, it also changes the rhythm. Because if I change a pure vowel into a schwa, which is really, really short, the vowel length is going to be a lot shorter as well. So from this rhythm of like, where every syllable has the same length. Holiday. Holiday. All of a sudden the high is really long because it's the primary stress. Ha. L really short. Holiday. Holiday. Holiday. Not holiday. Holiday. Okay, so it changes the pronunciation, but it changes the rhythm as well. And this is something that is very important as well if you want to start implementing and integrating that American, British, Australian rhythm into your English, because it helps you with delivering your message and getting your message across. Now, here's one thing I want you to remember. Non native speakers tend to associate the vowel letter in a weak syllable with a pure vowel sound. So again, whenever there is a weak syllable, a syllable without a stress, a weak stress, and we agreed that there is no vowel sound there. It's just a schwa. But there is a letter there. There's always a letter. And it can be a, O, U, I, I, or e, or any combination of the five. So there are no rules. It can be any of those. And because we're used to reading English, we associate a sound to the vowel letter, and usually we associate the pure vowel sound that goes with the vowel letter. So the letter A, we will probably analyze it as a like in America. And the letter E is going to be associated with a like in management, we may say that instead of management, I is going to be an E, holiday instead of holiday, or modify instead of modify. O is obviously going to be an computer instead of computer, right? No O sound. And a U is often going to be an U sound. Focus instead of focus. Because we don't always detect the schwa, the brain filters out sounds that don't exist in our native tongue. And then you hear the schwa sound when people speak, but your brain doesn't detect that sound because it doesn't exist in your native tongue. The brain is looking for the right category and to fit in sounds, new sounds that don't exist. And if it doesn't exist in your native tongue, it's very likely to filter it out. But you still need something there because you detect a sound. So you need more information. And then you go to the written word, even though it's not a phonetic language. And your Brain is kind of like bringing up the spelling of the word. And if there is an o there, you will automatically put an sound there. And if there is an A, you are very likely to put an ah sound there. And with I, same thing. E. Because this is the missing information. And most languages have those pure five vowel sounds, like the five vowel letters of American English. Tricky, I think. So the brain plays tricks on us. So we start hearing sounds that don't actually exist. Yes, I'm telling you, we hear sounds that don't exist. Because I once had a long conversation with a student, I might even dare to say that it was an argument because he said that there is an O in computer. And I said, no, there isn't. And he said, yes, I can hear it when you say it here. Say it. And I say computer. He said, there it is. You just said an O. And I said, no, I didn't. Computer, there's an O right there. And we went on and on and on and they didn't. Slow motion. Computer. No, now you're just exaggerating like. But that's how you say it anyway. So sometimes the brain is so deceiving that you believe that you're hearing a sound. You're actually hearing a sound that doesn't exist because it's in the spelling and it's pronounced with such a neutral sound that your brain just doesn't detect. Okay. So the first step is to recognize the sound to hear it right. Now when I say a. Cum. Computer. About condition. Hospital. Popular. Popular. Not popular. Popular. Are you starting to hear all those schwas? Condition. Grammer. Mer. Graduation. Africa.

Afraid.

It'S not Africa. In English. Africa. Possibility. Possibilities. Police. Are you starting to hear all those schwas? It's not. Police. Police. Congratulations. Congratulations. So we have a long word here, a bunch of syllables. So we should have all types of stresses here. The primary stress, secondary stress, and weak stress. So we said that the primary stress is longer, louder, higher in pitch. And we always have a primary stress. Congratulations. Right, Lay. That's the primary stress. But what about the first syllable? Is it congratulations or can we reduce it to kin? Kin. Congra. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. So it's a schwa. What about the next syllable? GRA or gr? Congru. Con. Gr. Congratulations. If I reduce it, it just sounds rushed and unclear. And that is because it's a secondary stress. We need to have a vowel there. So we need to pronounce it. In this case, it's the A as in cat. Congra. Congra. Now Is it to congratoo. So first of all, the T here is not a T, it's a J sound. And do we say congradu lations or can we say congrad? We know that the lay is the primary stress, so we pronounce it fully. But if we can reduce the to and it sounds okay or even better, it's a schwa. Congratulation or congratulations, right? And then we reduce it. It's not. It's not congratulation. So that's a schwa as well. The ion at the end is always reduced to a schwa. Always. Now, I want you to think about all these types of stresses as if they're people, and they're people going to a party. And in a party, you always have the extrovert, right? Like, the person who is the center of the party, and he or she are, like, talking, talking, talking. Everyone's around them, everything's around them. That's the primary stress. Now you have the secondary stress, which is like the ambivert. It's, you know, like that type of person that won't be the center of attention, but they like the. The. The people and the hang. And they don't mind, like, talking to people, right? They're okay with it. They also like to be alone and left out. Left alone. But in this case in the party, they do chill, and they're, like, standing around that, you know, the extrovert, the primary stress, and they just listen. And then there is the schwa, the weak stress, the introvert that is just, like, looking for an opportunity to just take a step back and not be so visible. Like, just. I just want to be in the back room to chat with my friends. Like, I don't want to really be here right now. Too many people, too loud. The music is so noisy. I'm such a schwa. Like, I don't like parties, and I don't like to be around a lot of people in, like, social parties and gatherings and stuff. So I always like to kind of, like, chill in the back. So the schwa is just, like, allowing the other syllables, the other people to shine, right? That's the schwa. It's like a very considerate syllable. I'm just gonna take a step back so that the primary stress will really be noticeable. Because then the word is unclear, right? Because you have to distinguish the primary stress from the rest of the syllables. And the schwa helps you do that. Because if you don't, then convict and convict are going to sound exactly the same. Convict. Convict, Right. So this is how you distinguish between them. Because in convict, the stresses on the first syllable and the second syllable is reduced schwa, convict versus convict, the first syllable is reduced. The schwa takes a step back to allow the primary stress vict to shine. How considerate. Okay, so you can think about it like that as well. So the schwa is a very considerate syllable that just allows the sounds around it to shine, whether it's the primary stress or the secondary stress that needs to be there, that wants a little bit of the attention, but is not, like, over the top, like the primary stress. I hope that makes sense. If not, you can just, like, go back to the beginning and listen to my explanation there. It's a bit more logical. But you got to get the idea that not all the syllables are pronounced the same, and they don't have the same energy, they don't have the same beat, like the same rhythm. And one. And once you get that, you start hearing it. And once you start hearing it, you start making it. And when you start making it, you start creating a difference in how you speak and how you stress words. And that's how you start having more impact when you speak, you engage people. And this is the secret of the schwa. I'll tell you this as well. Like, I think that when you get stuck with pronouncing long words, it's usually because of the schwa. It doesn't matter if you pronounce the word computer with an o computer, everyone will understand you. If you say holiday, everyone will understand you because there is an underlying vowel there. The reason why you're saying holiday, because originally in the word, people know that there must have been, like, an sound there. And if you were to ask people to say holiday slowly, they would probably say holy day. They won't say hala day if they say it really, really slowly. So there is an underlying vowel there in the brain. So if you mispronounce it and if you put the vowel there, they'll get it. Okay. But it will interfere with your clarity when it comes to all those long words. Because the schwa helps you focus on what's important, and that's the stressed syllables. Just like in congratulations or impossibility or creativity and all of those long words that you might get stuck with personalization, you might get stuck saying it. But if you understand what syllable to stress and what syllable to reduce, it kind of like creates that rhythm that is there to help you get through this word easily, because that's how English is spoken. Because when you understand what you need to reduce and what you need to emphasize. You stop putting emphasis or you stop pronouncing sounds that don't exist, therefore, investing more energy than you should. You want to be stingy with the number of sounds that you make when you speak English because there are so many sounds. So you want to be very protective of how much effort you actually put into speaking. And understanding the schwa. And using the schwa will also help you, right next to clarity, to invest less energy into speaking. And this is something that is important. In another episode in the future, I don't know when exactly you can find it in my YouTube channel, I will talk about reductions of full phrases and full words in sentences. So whatever I talked about here, like the reduction of syllables within words, happens in larger context in phrases and sentences. Because, like, we have holiday primary week, secondary stresses. We also have these types of stresses in phrases and sentences. And in this case, instead of a syllable, it's a word like talk to me. Talk is the primary stress here. T is reduced to a schwa. Me is a secondary stress. Talk to me. Holiday, right? So this is why the schwa is so freaking essential. Because it's not just about the pronunciation of words. It's about understanding the rhythm of English and understanding intonation. And really, it's about being clear. And it's so much fun. I'm gonna make T shirts with a schwa sound. I swear. I promise. And when it's out, I'm gonna let you know because. And I'm gonna think of a cute copy to put right above or right below because I think we should all have a schwa T shirt. Okay? I hope this helped you understand a bit more about the schwa. If you're still confused, then I recommend to listen to this episode again because it will make a lot more sense once you listen to it the second time. Or also just open your ears and listen to people speaking. Listen to YouTube videos. Use YouGlish. YouGlish.com you type in a word, and then it shows you a video where the speaker there uses that particular word. And that's an awesome tool. And you can listen to it clearly, you can slow it down, and then the brain has time to focus on the actual pronunciation. You start hearing it. I highly recommend you to use any of those tools, but to really, really listen, okay? Don't take anything for granted. Don't assume how the word is pronounced. Really listen like a baby listening to a word for the first time, because spelling has a huge impact on how you perceive the word and how you pronounce the word. And what we want to do here is to detach pronunciation from spelling. And the only way to do it is to listen closely to how the language is pronounced. And by listening or looking for the schwas, it's the first step you can take towards understanding English better. Okay, so please let me know what you think about this episode. Send me a DM Hadar accentswaystagram or you can go to YouTube, because usually I publish this as a YouTube video. So you can go there and check out my other videos about the schwa and if you want. But I think that is by far my most elaborate explanation about the schwa. Elaborate. How many schwas do we have here? Elaborate. B r. Very good. 2. Also, if you haven't yet, please subscribe wherever you're listening to this episode, whether it's Spotify or itunes or Stitcher Google Podcast. Subscribe, subscribe so you get updates. Whenever I publish or release a new episode, I release a new episode twice a week. And if you are an itunes, I would love it if you could rate and review the podcast so it can get to more people out there. And that's how I also know that you're there, because I read all my reviews. So I would love for you to do that as well if you happen to listen to this on itunes. Thank you so, so much. And what can I tell you? I really appreciate the fact that you decided to tune in to this episode and to this podcast, and I hope I can provide a lot more value for you in future episodes as well. Have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day and I'll speak to you in the next episode. Sarah.