Do you think native speaker also speak short "i" sound as schwa sound sometimes? like in the first sound of eleven, economy, immediate, infinite? I'm quite confused. Thank you.
Yes, definitely! I was surprised when I first looked up the word "between" because I think I use a schwa on the first syllable and the dictionary had /ɪ/. The key is, for unstressed syllables with reduced vowels, the vowel is usually schwa or /ɪ/, and I think speakers vary with which one they use. As long as you keep it unstressed, they will sound similar enough that it doesn't matter which you use.
@@SpeechModification Thanks for your tip. That's why I think English is very hard. Real world English just gets more different than what I've learnt from school, and the phonetic symbols start to mess around a lot in my head when I try to speak with other people :)
Excellent! I didnt know that the ^ was the same schwa for stressed syllables...its the most important thing for my english pronunciation ...muchísimas gracias!
They are different sounds, but Americans lost ^ and replace it with schwa. They keep the ^ symbol mostly for compatibility with the British and for legacy reasons. Most British accents maintain a distinction between the 2 sounds.
Hi, you can learn the basic rules of intonation and stress, then do a lot of listening and imitating practice. Usually practicing conversation and listening to others in conversation is the best way to hear and practice intonation. You can use my intonation playlist to help you as well: ua-cam.com/play/PLJXFLCasjYl4a4rz4DTR0p_PQqxUIr8r9.html
Very well explained!! Question: is there any rule or suggestion I can use to pick the correct vowel sound. For example: if Im reading a text and I see the word " "ACCENT". Do I use A as in Ambiguous or the schwa as in the word another? Thank you!!
Unfortunately there are no rules that are 100% reliable, but often when the first syllable is unstressed, the letter A will say schwa. You can learn more about how to use the dictionary to see the vowel sounds and syllable stress in these videos: ua-cam.com/video/iwYFNv109ME/v-deo.html, ua-cam.com/video/HlClb2-ZkcM/v-deo.html and in this free lesson on our website: www.speechmodification.com/free/how-to-learn-the-american-accent-intonation-in-words
hello teacher, how to increase speaking speed, I heard that I have to keep speaking continuously within 1 minutes, It makes a habit to speak, and then day by day correct wrong pronunciation?
Hi, yes, I agree to increase speed/fluency, you should speak out loud as much as possible. I also have some suggestions in these videos: ua-cam.com/users/liverbSqMXfSAwk. ua-cam.com/video/CS9HMyPco4U/v-deo.html
Is there a way you could explain why these words take on the schwa sound? How does one know to say "Other" with the schwa sound instead of a true O sound? Thank you :)
Thank you, that's an excellent question. The best way to be certain is to use a dictionary to see what the vowel letter says. In many cases the vowel schwa is in the unstressed syllables, but in words like "other" it's a stressed schwa. There aren't a lot of patterns for when it will be a schwa, so I recommend learning the most frequently used words with vowel schwa, many of which are in this video. If you know the 10 or 20 most frequent words, that will cover a lot of your usage of the vowel sound. You might find this free download for vowel sounds and spelling to be useful: www.speechmodification.com/store/p94/vowels.html
@@SpeechModification And my question goes farther away: can I think of "aybout" to say "about" as a help? That is to say: what to think to pronounce schwa?
@@VentariusCrick I picture schwa as "uh," so "about" would look like "uh-bout." You can see examples of this idea in many of my "word of the day" videos, for example in "fortunate" ua-cam.com/video/UVbKa3D8l6Y/v-deo.html
Hi, that's a great question. The word "the" is almost always unstressed. When it is stressed, the vowel changes to /i/ (you can see more about this in this video:ua-cam.com/video/eMqYb0pQiTk/v-deo.html). So, there is no version of "the" with the stressed /ʌ/, it's always unstressed /ə/.
If they are the same sound, why did they create two phonetic symbols for just one sound? Why bother? And why didn't they create two different symbols for all the other vowel sounds.(It's not fair.) One is for stressd syllables, and the other for unstressed syllables. The whole story doesn't hold water.
If I understand you correctly, my answer is that it depends on the word. When I'm saying a word with a stressed schwa like "does" or "fun," it's a clear, full vowel. When I'm saying a word with a schwa in the unstressed syllable like today or about, it's not a full clear vowel, it's short and reduced, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's a schwa sound, a reduced /ɪ/ sound, or almost no vowel sound at all.
I don't think we really "think" phonemes. As a native speaker, we have the correct "uhWAY" pronunciation stored in the mind, but once we learn to spell, we might think "a way" because we know the spelling. When native English speaking children learn to write, before they learn spelling, they might write a word like "away" as "uwa" or "uway," because they are sounding it out.
I'm not sure there are a defined number, most people develop a pretty strong ability to decode a large number words based on sight-reading over time. When children are learning, there are usually about 250 - 500 sight words that they need to learn as developing readers.
@@VentariusCrick Yes, that's close, though schwa is more central than /ʊ/. You might find this video helpful to visualize where the vowels are formed in the mouth: ua-cam.com/video/4IrnRW1B19I/v-deo.html
Hi Luciana, thank you for joining! I think you have a different user name now, but if you see this message, you can find information for members on our community page. You can also email me at christine@speechmodification.com and I can set you up with your online course access. Welcome, it's great to have you as a member!
Hi, yes, since they make the same vowel sound, some dictionaries don't show you stressed vs. unstressed schwa. You can figure it out base on where the stress is in the word (which the dictionary usually shows).
Hi César, Yes, you are correct. /ʌ/ is stressed schwa and /ə/ is unstressed schwa. There are two symbols because they serve different functions - /ʌ/ is the vowel in words like "some, much, fun" and /ə/ is the vowel in the unstressed syllables of "about, banana" etc.
Actually I hear a clear difference between [ə] (Schwa) and [ʌ], eg. in above [əˈbʌv/]. For [ʌ] the mouth is more open and the tongue lower. Typical examples for the [ə] are the unstressed words "a" and "the".
Hi, thanks for your feedback. Yes, technically the /ʌ/ is slightly further back and more open than /ə/, but in terms of what people can feel and hear, they can be grouped together. I do this especially because the most typically error pattern on /ʌ/ is to use something closer to /ɑ/, which means the tongue will be too low and the jaw too open. The typical errors on /ə/ are to use a clear vowel rather than a reduced vowel. Getting the difference in duration, as well as the more central position and laxness are the way to best correct the accent errors. When people start to think of the central tongue positio and match these sounds together, they usually begin to use the American pronunciation.
Good suggestion, Mohamed. I'll make a video for it, but in the meantime here's what to watch out for: /æk 'tɪ və di/ The stress is on on the second syllable, so stretch the "ti" and shorten the other syllables.. The first vowel is /æ/ as in sat the second vowel is /ɪ/ as in it the third vowel is /ə/, vowel schwa the last vowel is /i/ as in eat The second t sounds more like a d in American English. That's a lot! It will be clearer when I put it in a video for you.
Do you think native speaker also speak short "i" sound as schwa sound sometimes? like in the first sound of eleven, economy, immediate, infinite? I'm quite confused. Thank you.
Yes, definitely! I was surprised when I first looked up the word "between" because I think I use a schwa on the first syllable and the dictionary had /ɪ/. The key is, for unstressed syllables with reduced vowels, the vowel is usually schwa or /ɪ/, and I think speakers vary with which one they use. As long as you keep it unstressed, they will sound similar enough that it doesn't matter which you use.
You might find this video about clear and reduced vowels useful: ua-cam.com/video/78h9ZcrWcKE/v-deo.html
@@SpeechModification Thanks for your tip. That's why I think English is very hard. Real world English just gets more different than what I've learnt from school, and the phonetic symbols start to mess around a lot in my head when I try to speak with other people :)
@@elioh7273 Hang in there! It's tough, definitely, but in many cases these small details don't matter for being understood.
Hi, I''ll be talking about this topic again on Thursday: ua-cam.com/video/WJ7xz-7GEWM/v-deo.html
Excellent! I didnt know that the ^ was the same schwa for stressed syllables...its the most important thing for my english pronunciation ...muchísimas gracias!
Thanks for your support!
They are different sounds, but Americans lost ^ and replace it with schwa. They keep the ^ symbol mostly for compatibility with the British and for legacy reasons. Most British accents maintain a distinction between the 2 sounds.
Thank you very much. I always thought I was speaking wrong for pronouncing both ʌ and ə as the same.
Thanks for watching!
Most useful trick, it certainly changes a word sound, but it’s hard to know what words have it unless your ear is well tuned and catches where
I watched the video about schwa sound It really helped me.
Thanks alot.
MARIA EU NUNCA VIR COMO VOCÊ ENSINAR ENGLISH PERFEITO
Hello teacher, how can I improve my intonation and stress as speaking?
Hi, you can learn the basic rules of intonation and stress, then do a lot of listening and imitating practice. Usually practicing conversation and listening to others in conversation is the best way to hear and practice intonation. You can use my intonation playlist to help you as well: ua-cam.com/play/PLJXFLCasjYl4a4rz4DTR0p_PQqxUIr8r9.html
Helleo, I have a question: Buying your course, the content is different of the content we have on youtube?
Very well explained!!
Question: is there any rule or suggestion I can use to pick the correct vowel sound.
For example: if Im reading a text and I see the word " "ACCENT". Do I use A as in Ambiguous or the schwa as in the word another?
Thank you!!
Unfortunately there are no rules that are 100% reliable, but often when the first syllable is unstressed, the letter A will say schwa. You can learn more about how to use the dictionary to see the vowel sounds and syllable stress in these videos: ua-cam.com/video/iwYFNv109ME/v-deo.html, ua-cam.com/video/HlClb2-ZkcM/v-deo.html and in this free lesson on our website: www.speechmodification.com/free/how-to-learn-the-american-accent-intonation-in-words
I was today years old when I learned WHY they use two symbols for the same sound 🤦♀️ Thanks for enlightening me 💓
Thanks a lot 🌹
hello teacher, how to increase speaking speed, I heard that I have to keep speaking continuously within 1 minutes, It makes a habit to speak, and then day by day correct wrong pronunciation?
Hi, yes, I agree to increase speed/fluency, you should speak out loud as much as possible. I also have some suggestions in these videos: ua-cam.com/users/liverbSqMXfSAwk. ua-cam.com/video/CS9HMyPco4U/v-deo.html
Can "tion" also be produced "ɪ" sound instead of schwa?.....
Yes, in the -tion ending we use a reduced vowel, which can sound like ə or ɪ.
Is there a way you could explain why these words take on the schwa sound? How does one know to say "Other" with the schwa sound instead of a true O sound? Thank you :)
Thank you, that's an excellent question. The best way to be certain is to use a dictionary to see what the vowel letter says. In many cases the vowel schwa is in the unstressed syllables, but in words like "other" it's a stressed schwa. There aren't a lot of patterns for when it will be a schwa, so I recommend learning the most frequently used words with vowel schwa, many of which are in this video. If you know the 10 or 20 most frequent words, that will cover a lot of your usage of the vowel sound. You might find this free download for vowel sounds and spelling to be useful: www.speechmodification.com/store/p94/vowels.html
@@SpeechModification And my question goes farther away: can I think of "aybout" to say "about" as a help? That is to say: what to think to pronounce schwa?
@@VentariusCrick I picture schwa as "uh," so "about" would look like "uh-bout." You can see examples of this idea in many of my "word of the day" videos, for example in "fortunate" ua-cam.com/video/UVbKa3D8l6Y/v-deo.html
hi i have a question. please notice me. why is the word "the" not using the symbol /^/ but instead /ə/.
Hi, that's a great question. The word "the" is almost always unstressed. When it is stressed, the vowel changes to /i/ (you can see more about this in this video:ua-cam.com/video/eMqYb0pQiTk/v-deo.html). So, there is no version of "the" with the stressed /ʌ/, it's always unstressed /ə/.
omg. you replied. 😁 thank you so much. Now it's very clear to me. god bless you! new subscriber here ^_^
I'm glad, thank you for the question and for subscribing!
If they are the same sound, why did they create two phonetic symbols for just one sound? Why bother? And why didn't they create two different symbols for all the other vowel sounds.(It's not fair.) One is for stressd syllables, and the other for unstressed syllables. The whole story doesn't hold water.
Thank you, I didn't know that these sounds are same except the stress
My pleasure.
Do you think of a full vowel sound (I mean, a native speaker) to speak schwa?
If I understand you correctly, my answer is that it depends on the word. When I'm saying a word with a stressed schwa like "does" or "fun," it's a clear, full vowel. When I'm saying a word with a schwa in the unstressed syllable like today or about, it's not a full clear vowel, it's short and reduced, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's a schwa sound, a reduced /ɪ/ sound, or almost no vowel sound at all.
@@SpeechModification But when you say "away", what do you say in your mind, " Ayway " Or "uhway"? Not as a fact, but as an abstract phoneme, I mean.
@@VentariusCrick I'm not sure quite what you mean - as a native speaker, the phoneme mapped in my mind is /ə/.
I don't think we really "think" phonemes. As a native speaker, we have the correct "uhWAY" pronunciation stored in the mind, but once we learn to spell, we might think "a way" because we know the spelling. When native English speaking children learn to write, before they learn spelling, they might write a word like "away" as "uwa" or "uway," because they are sounding it out.
@@SpeechModification I really thank you 🙂
Pretty good. You teach well.
Thanks for watching!
How many sight words are there in America English
I'm not sure there are a defined number, most people develop a pretty strong ability to decode a large number words based on sight-reading over time. When children are learning, there are usually about 250 - 500 sight words that they need to learn as developing readers.
Thank you! I was losing my mind trying to hear the difference between ʌ and ə haha
Thanks for watching!
Grato pela aula. Thank you.
Thank you!
Best teacher keep going
Thank you! 😃
What are the kinds of schwa sounds?
The video explains that there are two - stressed schwa /ʌ/ as in "such" and "fun," and unstressed schwa /ə/ as in "again." Both sound like "uh."
@@SpeechModification So, we must think of the "foot" vowel sound but unrounded to sound like schwa.
@@VentariusCrick Yes, that's close, though schwa is more central than /ʊ/. You might find this video helpful to visualize where the vowels are formed in the mouth: ua-cam.com/video/4IrnRW1B19I/v-deo.html
Thanks. It's helpful.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you
You are welcome!
Thanks!!
You're awesome
Buscaba un buen video como este hasta q al fin lo encontre🌸
Thank you!
Thank you 😊
Thanks for watching!
SpeechModification 😉
I AM FROM INDIA LEARN AMERICAN ACCENT ENGLISH WITH YOU.
Thanks for watching!
It's amazing!!
Thank you Luciana!
Hi Luciana, thank you for joining! I think you have a different user name now, but if you see this message, you can find information for members on our community page. You can also email me at christine@speechmodification.com and I can set you up with your online course access. Welcome, it's great to have you as a member!
Some dictionaries make no distinction of these two sounds. Odd
Hi, yes, since they make the same vowel sound, some dictionaries don't show you stressed vs. unstressed schwa. You can figure it out base on where the stress is in the word (which the dictionary usually shows).
Great
So, the name of both sounds is Schwa?
Hi César, Yes, you are correct. /ʌ/ is stressed schwa and /ə/ is unstressed schwa. There are two symbols because they serve different functions - /ʌ/ is the vowel in words like "some, much, fun" and /ə/ is the vowel in the unstressed syllables of "about, banana" etc.
Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I always pronounce wrong the word "About"
I can talk about the word "about" in a future video. I also cover it as part of a sentence in this video: ua-cam.com/video/53_u4kW8yU8/v-deo.html
@@SpeechModification thank You! Wonderful videos by the way
magnifique! like always :)
Merci beaucoup!
2021 nicaragua
Actually I hear a clear difference between [ə] (Schwa) and [ʌ], eg. in above [əˈbʌv/]. For [ʌ] the mouth is more open and the tongue lower. Typical examples for the [ə] are the unstressed words "a" and "the".
Hi, thanks for your feedback. Yes, technically the /ʌ/ is slightly further back and more open than /ə/, but in terms of what people can feel and hear, they can be grouped together. I do this especially because the most typically error pattern on /ʌ/ is to use something closer to /ɑ/, which means the tongue will be too low and the jaw too open. The typical errors on /ə/ are to use a clear vowel rather than a reduced vowel. Getting the difference in duration, as well as the more central position and laxness are the way to best correct the accent errors. When people start to think of the central tongue positio and match these sounds together, they usually begin to use the American pronunciation.
you - are - amazin-G. XD
Thanks for your support!
activity pronunciation
Good suggestion, Mohamed. I'll make a video for it, but in the meantime here's what to watch out for:
/æk 'tɪ və di/
The stress is on on the second syllable, so stretch the "ti" and shorten the other syllables..
The first vowel is /æ/ as in sat
the second vowel is /ɪ/ as in it
the third vowel is /ə/, vowel schwa
the last vowel is /i/ as in eat
The second t sounds more like a d in American English.
That's a lot! It will be clearer when I put it in a video for you.
HI Mohamed, Here's a video for you on how to pronounce "activity" : ua-cam.com/video/X_8ey_WV9no/v-deo.html
10 Q
You're so beautiful and elegant
Don´t you know any beautiful and elegant women else?
@@VentariusCrick I know a lot, but when I saw your elegance, I liked to express something I felt and thank you
no, they arent the same
305th like
Thank you
You're welcome, thank you for watching!