English Pronunciation - The Schwa Sound /ə/ (Part 1)

What is the most important sound in English? What is the most common sound in English?

The answer to both of these questions is, THE SCHWA sound! The Schwa sound, which looks like this /ə/, is both the most common sound in English, and the most important sound for people who want to learn how to pronounce words correctly and speak fluently and quickly in English.

The Schwa sound is the most common sound in both American and British English, but in British English it is even more common and appears in nearly every single word!

The schwa sound appears in unstressed syllables, which means when you hear a vowel sound and it's not stressed (louder or longer) in any word, then it's probably going to be a Schwa /ə/ sound. For example, in the sentence;
"The internet represents the best of us" there are 6 schwa sounds! Thə intənet reprəsents thə best əf əs. Amazing right? If you use the Schwa sound correctly, it allows you to speak SUPER FAST in English! (Lot's about this in the video!).

My advice is to practice this sound as often as you can until it becomes 'second nature' (that means you don't even have to think about it anymore, it will be natural to you, just like a native speaker). Do this, and I promise everyone you meet will comment about how AMAZING your English pronunciation is and how they wish they could speak as fast as you can in English!

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**PLEASE NOTE**
In the 2nd PRACTICE SENTENCE, which says, "A man was sitting alone at home on a sofa" you might see the video SKIP a little. This is because I accidently said there are 7 schwa sounds (because the sentence I wrote for myself whilst making the video did have 7) but there are actually 6 schwa sounds in this sentence! The video is correct (it shows only 6 schwa sounds) but I say 7 by mistake. Thanks to one of the great students for pointing this out to me! The video has been CUT so that it now skips me saying seven and instead students can count the 6 themselves.

00:00 Introduction
00:42 What is the Schwa sound?
01:50 How to pronounce the Schwa sound!
02:23 5 Vowels can all be SCHWA!
05:19 Articles (A, an, the)
07:50 Amazing
08:00 Unstressed Syllables
10:36 Schwa in the middle of words
10:50 ER, OR, AR endings
11:43 Family Members
12:05 A good way to practice
12:50 Words that end in 'A'
13:20 TEST your Schwa!

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[EasyENGLISHwithJames]

Hey guys and girls! If you enjoyed this video, remember to hit LIKE and SUBSCRIBE, especially if you want to see more of my videos on your homepage in the future!

I hope you enjoyed the video and it helps you to improve your English! Thanks for watching!

[lechugaec]

Finally a teacher who could make understand the schwa, its use and pronuntiation. Thanks a lot.

[antonioaugustopaco]

I here in Brazil learning English in my 70 y.o. with James. Crazy but I am doing it every single day since 4 years ago. My answer is 13 achwa sound. Much obliged!!

[judycn]

Omg!! You’re the best English teacher! I’m so glad I found you. I have been looking for IPA, long and short vowel teaching. There you are explaining everything very clearly and easily. Thank you so so much…..❤

[eduardonunez]

You hit the head of the nail. After many years trying to speak English fluently I finally found a teacher who took the time to explain exactly how to pronunce the famous "Schwa" sound. Thanks a lot teacher.

[deepikapal]

The best English teacher I ever saw
🎉🎉🎉🎉

[anthonydibia]

I am not pulling your legs if I say you are simply the best teacher in the world. Thanks 👍

[kinkinchan]

Hi James, I am learning english pronounciation online. You are ten In a scale of 1 to 10 amongst others. Thank you. Your class duration of about 15 minutes is perfec, and you presentation and teaching materials are so easy to pick up. Your teaching and work can capture students' attrention in the class.

[eslcoursekamrunnesa]

Finally i got my exact answer about this sound, thanks a million teacher. Definitely it’s excellent explanation with outstanding presentation.

[mariyaraykova]

I counted 14 schwa sounds. Thank you for the video. I really enjoyed your videos, they helped me with pronounsiation of english!

[yungann]

13 schwa sounds, right?
It's very helpful to learn to speak like native speaker.
Thank you do much.

[sumayaalhinai]

Even after 2 years we still learn a lot from your videos… thank you

[shree]

A great video, a great presenter !!
Such lucid and simple explanation, can only come from the greatness of the teacher's ability in simplifying concepts, making it so easy and understandable !!Enjoyed the video💐👌

[jjtgjhs]

We are so grateful to you, my dear Teacher.Really you are amasing.Thanks a lot.

[asiulordepalayaadeur]

my phonethics and phonology teacher loves you because you are very clear when you explain your class, and I agree with her. Thank you so much, these videos are really helpful to me.

[manoharans]

Your english is very simple and easy to understand. Today I found your vedios

[asalaelsied]

I am from Egypt and l can not speak English very well, but you make me very happy so happy thank you very much!Iam Asala.I
hope to read my words ❤

[dda]

The best English teacher one could ever come across on YouTube - simple but super clear! I wish I met him earlier! 👏👏

[amalsafrioui]

Hello Mr.James.
I want to say thank you so much for the hard work what are you doing with us.
I wish that my English be amazing.

[bharatmishra]

Thanks. I finally feel some YouTuber can help me in pronunciation of vowel sound. I have wasted years. But I am happy I could finally come across one expert.