Weak Forms in English With Schwa Sounds

To speak faster, we turn a lot of words into weak form schwa sounds.
Weak form words are de-stressed and will often combine with other words to form what sounds like one word:

For example:
'I was ten at the time' becomes:
'UhwuhzTEN at thuhTime'

You need to understand this to win at English. Some words are pronounced one way by themselves, but when combined with other words, they sound different, usually by taking out some vowels and replacing them with the schwa.

You’ll now hear weak and strong forms in English pronunciation everywhere, and with practice your listening will go up. Weak forms are done in every dialect of English, but I think the British use them a lot, while the Jamaicans and New Zealanders are power users - whose entire sentence rhythm is highly influenced by weak forms and schwa sounds..

When you get really good, this will unlock rap music. Perhaps you’ll listen better than me because I don’t understand rap a lot of the time.

Try practicing this type of connected speech by watching your favorite movie and imitating the way the actors say their lines.

Links:

This video will be in the pronunciation and listening playlists.

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