How to pronounce the schwa /ə/
/ə/ is a reduced vowel made with the tongue central, mid. Relax everything — this is the sound your mouth makes when it is not trying. Make the smallest, quietest 'uh' you can.
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How to make it
- 1Relax everything — this is the sound your mouth makes when it is not trying.
- 2Make the smallest, quietest 'uh' you can.
- 3Keep it short and weak: the schwa only ever appears in unstressed syllables.
- 4Say the word at speed. Slowing down destroys the schwa, because a careful speaker restores the spelling vowel.
- Lips
- Completely relaxed.
- Tongue
- Resting in the middle of the mouth, doing nothing at all.
- Jaw
- Barely open.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
The teacher asked about another problem in the family.
A banana and a camera were left on the sofa.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have a schwa and even delete it in places, so the sound is available; the work is putting it where English stress puts it.
- Tamil
Tamil vowels stay full, so English unstressed syllables tend to be pronounced as written.
- Mandarin
Mandarin's neutral tone is a genuine reduced syllable, which helps, though English reduces far more often.
- Japanese
Japanese vowels keep their value, though i and u can be devoiced, so English reduction is produced as a whisper rather than a schwa.
- Korean
Korean vowels stay full, so every syllable in 'camera' can come out equally strong.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese is syllable-timed with full vowels, so English weak forms like 'a' and 'of' are often given their spelling value.
- Spanish
Spanish gives every vowel its full value, so 'about' comes out as 'a-bout' with a clear a, and English rhythm flattens.
- French
French has a schwa, but it is often dropped entirely, and French stress falls at the end of a phrase, so English reduction patterns still have to be learned.
- Italian
Italian keeps every vowel full too, so 'problem' can end with a clear e instead of a schwa.
- Russian
Russian reduces unstressed vowels heavily, so the schwa itself is familiar; the pattern of which English syllable is weak is the new part.
- Arabic
Arabic short vowels keep their value, so English unstressed syllables tend to be given a full a, i or u.
- Turkish
Turkish vowels keep their value and stress is usually final, so English weak syllables come out strong.
Straight answers
Is /ə/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. All English vowels are voiced, so the question only really separates the consonants.
What words start with the the schwa?
Common ones include about, again, another. In the middle of a word you get family, problem, camera, and at the end sofa, banana, teacher. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /ə/ spelled in English?
It is written "a", "e", "o", "u", "ou", "er", "or", "ar". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /ə/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a schwa and even delete it in places, so the sound is available; the work is putting it where English stress puts it.
Record the the schwa and see if it landed
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