WARING: This lesson contains pronunciation activities. Therefore, you will need to speak. 😉 Did you enjoy the lesson? Did you practice speaking with the schwa sound? Let us know your thoughts! 💖
Loved this video. I was trying to figure how to reconcile accents which rarely make use of the schwa. For example, Jamaica's standard variety of English rarely differentiate between stressed and unstressed syllables. This helped a lot! thank you :)
Hi, I'm sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic of this tutorial, but since you guys seem so kind and helpful I chose one of the last videos about pronunciation for my question. Do you happen to know, by any chance, if there is a rule for the pronunciation of words which start with the letter "E"? I mean, how does one know when to pronounce the first sound as "I" as in the word "Egyptian"(for instance) or "ɛ" as in "exercise"? Thanks in advance for any help.
Thanks for commenting! That's great question. When it comes to English, pronunciation and spelling have always had a peculiar relationship. If you're looking for a general rule, typically words that begin with E will have the short e [ɛ] when the 1st syllable is stressed like in "excercise" [EK-ser-sahyz]. When another syllable is stressed, then it often takes the /i/ sound like in "Egyptian" [ih-JIP-shuhn]. Other than that, I don't think there is much in the way of established rules for words that begin with E. 😀 👍
Interactive English Thanks a lot, that is just what I've been looking for. Very much appreciated! So when you bump into a new word (there must not be so many, but it happens sometimes doesn't it?) starting with "e" you have to know where the stress falls on to pronounce it, right?
Yes, that's correct. This is a good rule of thumb for words starting with E. There may be some exceptions (as is usually the case), but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Could you please explain the "Low back merger" (where /ɔ/ and maybe /ɒ/ become /ɑ/) and the "Weak vowel merger" (where unstressed /ɪ/ and maybe /ʊ/ become /ə/)? I'm learning to pronounce words in American English (in general), so I focus on the most standard/common pronunciations, but it's very difficult to know what they are, various dictionaries differ from each other and I think the main conflicts are based on these two mergers, the rest is usually consistent. So far my understanding is that in General American English (or Standard American English) people pronounce /ɑ/ instead of /ɔ/ (and they use /ɔ/ only in /ɔɪ/ and /ɔɹ/), and that /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ in unstressed syllables should be pronounced as /ə/, but I really don't know.
We're happy you enjoyed the lesson. In the future, we plan to put out more pronunciation lessons. It seems that a language skill many learners wish to improve. Have a great day! 😃
I think it's a slight different between US and British English. In the US most would use the schwa in the second syllable. I think maybe in this lesson I forgot to put it in the 3rd syllable. 🤔
Thanks so much! 😊 I appreciate your comment. I'm also glad you found the lesson helpful. And we hope to visit your country some day. We've heard so many wonderful things.
Thanks for your comment! You bring up another great pronunciation point. In American English, there are several ways to pronounce the /t/ sound. One of those ways is called the "flap T," which sounds like a short /d/ sound. Some example words sometimes pronounced with the flap T include "letter" [leder] and "pretty" [pridee]. In the video, the correct sentence is "What are you doing tonight?" However, I pronounced the /t/ in "What" with the Flap T, so "What are you..." sound like [Whad-ar-yuh...]. I hope this helps! Perhaps in the future we'll do another video with all the different /t/ sound in American English. :)
Worst F sound in english.. i am missing it so many times its insane. Any tips on how to find it easy? I know its an unstressed vowel allways so i can allways guess it, but its so hard on polysylabic words!!!!!! i hate it
Oh wow! Was so useful! I always feel like I can't imitate natives speakers but now I know that I need improve my schwa sound to be better in that. Thanks a lot. 😁🖤🙌
@@tricky_english No, I did not. I just trust my lecturers in the University , while we were studying the English phonetic. The state paid some certain money to us, the students, the whole first year to understand how important this subject is - the English language's phonetic. I am not sure you are capable to understand this if you can insult other people work so easy.
@@zdorovyeuspeh17 Where and when did I insult? Don’t blame me for the things I didn’t. Not only should you study phonetics again but grammar rules as well. I don’t have time and energy to explain this to you. Good luck!
Schwa sound is so hard for me, but I get it a little more with your video...The practice continue.Could you make a podcast in the future? 😊 Thanks for all. Kind regards!
Thanks for commenting Natalia. We're glad you learned a little more about the schwa. And we appreciate your suggestion. We've been talking about starting a podcast for some time now. But we're still trying to figure out the content. But we hope to start it later this year. Stay tuned. We'll be sure to let everyone know once we get it started. 😃
Finally, I got it. Unfortunately, I think the music in the video it’s very distracted. It was hard for me to focus and listen the pronunciation. Just a kind recommendation. Regards😊
I am sure that through these videos we are going to be more capable and confident speaking English. I will catch later. See ya. I hope to dream tonight with the Schwa Sound. It was unforgettable.
Hello there, Could you please give me some more examples such as audio or text for SCHWA SOUND sound? I mean a link or something like that, I am grateful🙏
I'm watching again as I have a lot of time... lol,,,, I know an older lady that speaks word by word and even so she does the schwa sound ...such as Alana...meaning Atlanta!!!!lol
Thanks for your comment. By and large, the unstressed schwa sound has an /uh/ sound. However, at times the sound is omitted altogether. For example, the word CHOCOLATE. The CO in the 2nd syllable is our unstressed schwa. But in conversational English, it's completely omitted. 😊👍
As a native English speaker learning how to teach English, this is surprisingly difficult for me to grasp because to me schwa sounds can vary depending on the word. The schwa in "together" does not sound the same as the schwa in "for". I'll grasp it eventually.
Banana is brazilian word and the americans adapted from wrong way. The original pronunce (brazilian) is banana (banãnã). However, in the US doesn't exist the "ã" sound (nasal vowel). Therefore, americans speaks something like "B'nana"
Como puede un supuesto profesor enseñar inglés hablando inglés?? No te parece que algo no encaja ?? Si yo quiero aprender hablar inglés debes hablar y explicar en la otra lengua del país que quiere aprender ....
WARING: This lesson contains pronunciation activities. Therefore, you will need to speak. 😉 Did you enjoy the lesson? Did you practice speaking with the schwa sound? Let us know your thoughts! 💖
Do you speak US accent?
afraid only has one f
I love this lesson a lot! I also love the music that was inserted in the video. Somehow it gets me inspired and excited ! You are lit !
The best schwa sound lesson I’ve ever come across, hands down!
Glad to hear that! Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
100% agree! I As an EFL teacher, I always dreaded teaching the shwa sound. All of his lessons are very clear and easy to understand for students.
Your pronunciation is so clear.
I appreciate it. Thanks for checking out the lesson. 😊
"Afraid" only has one F. I am loving all your videos.
Hope to improve my skills when it comes English language. newbie here and wanted to start your videos from the beginning.
Same 🫶🏼
I like the way of teaching
Glad you enjoyed the lesson. Thanks so much for your comment. 😊
Mr. Wes I can't thank you enough, for all you do with your lessons!
My pleasure! Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 😊
Tq u sir giving useful lesson.
Glad it was helpful. 😊
Excelent job !! GREAT CLASS!!
Glad you liked it! Thanks so much for your comment. 👍
Buenas noches, desde Manizales. Está lloviendo a cántaros
Loved this video. I was trying to figure how to reconcile accents which rarely make use of the schwa. For example, Jamaica's standard variety of English rarely differentiate between stressed and unstressed syllables. This helped a lot! thank you :)
Glad it was helpful! 😃
Hi, I'm sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic of this tutorial, but since you guys seem so kind and helpful I chose one of the last videos about pronunciation for my question. Do you happen to know, by any chance, if there is a rule for the pronunciation of words which start with the letter "E"? I mean, how does one know when to pronounce the first sound as "I" as in the word "Egyptian"(for instance) or "ɛ" as in "exercise"? Thanks in advance for any help.
Thanks for commenting! That's great question. When it comes to English, pronunciation and spelling have always had a peculiar relationship. If you're looking for a general rule, typically words that begin with E will have the short e [ɛ] when the 1st syllable is stressed like in "excercise" [EK-ser-sahyz]. When another syllable is stressed, then it often takes the /i/ sound like in "Egyptian" [ih-JIP-shuhn]. Other than that, I don't think there is much in the way of established rules for words that begin with E. 😀 👍
Interactive English Thanks a lot, that is just what I've been looking for. Very much appreciated! So when you bump into a new word (there must not be so many, but it happens sometimes doesn't it?) starting with "e" you have to know where the stress falls on to pronounce it, right?
Yes, that's correct. This is a good rule of thumb for words starting with E. There may be some exceptions (as is usually the case), but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Interactive English Thanks again, that's a golden piece of information.
Is it British or American english
Thanks for the class, it was simple, fast and really informative.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for your comment. 😃
Could you please explain the "Low back merger" (where /ɔ/ and maybe /ɒ/ become /ɑ/) and the "Weak vowel merger" (where unstressed /ɪ/ and maybe /ʊ/ become /ə/)?
I'm learning to pronounce words in American English (in general), so I focus on the most standard/common pronunciations, but it's very difficult to know what they are, various dictionaries differ from each other and I think the main conflicts are based on these two mergers, the rest is usually consistent.
So far my understanding is that in General American English (or Standard American English) people pronounce /ɑ/ instead of /ɔ/ (and they use /ɔ/ only in /ɔɪ/ and /ɔɹ/), and that /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ in unstressed syllables should be pronounced as /ə/, but I really don't know.
very very informative, thanks a lot
Glad it was helpful! 😃
Thank you so very much for amazingly well explained video. TC
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for checking out the lesson. 👍
Great video very helpful and interesting!
Glad you enjoyed it. 😊
Love your way of explaining
Thanks so much! So nice of you. 😃
Nice 👌
Thank you! Cheers! 😃
@@InteractiveEng Really good. I'm very satisfied with this lesson. Thank you for made this type of videos.
thanks , and good luck for your youtube channel
good move !
Thanks a lot Ahmed! :)
Thanks, understood 🤗🤗🤗
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. Glad it was helpful. 😊
Thanks for this clarification
Glad it was helpful! 😃
Thankx for yr explanation
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. Have a great day! 😃👍
Thanks for everything
Glad you enjoyed the lesson & found it useful. Have a great day! 👍
Best video i’ve seen on the schwa sound.
Well explained with great sense of humor 💯😆😆😆
Thanks so much Chelis. I'm glad you enjoyed the lesson. Have a great weekend! 😃
Gracias por el vídeo, apenas estoy iniciando, pero me encantó esta información porque me ayudó a entender un poco más el uso de este sonido.
Glad you enjoyed the lesson. 👍
It was exactly what I needed! !!!
Thanks in advance 😊
Thanks so much for your comment. Glad you found the lesson useful. 😊
Tenga su like buen hombre, gracias por la lección.
Muchas gracias. Me alegre que disfurtas la lección. Que tenga un buen dia! 😊
@@InteractiveEng I really enjoy your videos, thanks. Have a nice day.
♡(*´ω｀*)/♡
Great lesson very helpful
We're glad you enjoyed it! :)
Thank you! Great job!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed the lesson. Have a wonderful day. 👍
Thank you for the explanation, it was very good.
Glad you enjoyed the lesson Claudemir. 👍
wonderful videos!
We appreciate your kind words.
How can I know when a word contains SCHWA sound? I think I'll need more of them.
You would need to listen for that unstressed 'uh' sound. But if you look at the phonetics of individual words, you could probably pick it out. 👍
thanks
Glad you enjoyed the lesson Mary. Hope you have a nice day. 👍
I’ve learned a lot from this lesson, again I liked pronunciation lessons. Happy 4th🇺🇸
Excellent! Glad the lesson was useful. 😃
Useful
Happy to hear that! 👍
@@InteractiveEng it is my pleasure sir .
I would be so grateful if you share and subscribe to my TH-cam channel sir!
A very good explanation. I learned a lot about the Schwa sound.
Thank you for your efforts.
We're happy you enjoyed the lesson. In the future, we plan to put out more pronunciation lessons. It seems that a language skill many learners wish to improve. Have a great day! 😃
Interactive English Have a great day too.
Hi Wes! Great lesson! But I see you put the schwa for the word "difficult" in the second syllable, but the dictionary shows it at the third.
I think it's a slight different between US and British English. In the US most would use the schwa in the second syllable. I think maybe in this lesson I forgot to put it in the 3rd syllable. 🤔
Woow great and useful video .
Thanks so much Asmar! I'm glad you enjoyed the lesson and found it helpful. Have a great day! 🎉
It was a very helpful video and for everyone whose English is the second language. It helped a lot.
Thanks for commenting Carlos. Hope you have a great day! 👍
This is a great video.
Thanks so much! We appreciate your comment. And we're glad you found the lesson helpful. 😃
It was a short but useful lesson as usual. I hope you will make a bit longer lessons.
good luck for your youtube channel
Thanks so much Rajo! :)
3:34 🤯
you are great teatcher, greetings from Poland !!!!!
Thanks so much! 😊 I appreciate your comment. I'm also glad you found the lesson helpful. And we hope to visit your country some day. We've heard so many wonderful things.
on the example sentence, it's wrote what are you doing tonight but you saying what do you doing tonight. which one is right ??
Thanks for your comment! You bring up another great pronunciation point. In American English, there are several ways to pronounce the /t/ sound. One of those ways is called the "flap T," which sounds like a short /d/ sound. Some example words sometimes pronounced with the flap T include "letter" [leder] and "pretty" [pridee].
In the video, the correct sentence is "What are you doing tonight?" However, I pronounced the /t/ in "What" with the Flap T, so "What are you..." sound like [Whad-ar-yuh...]. I hope this helps! Perhaps in the future we'll do another video with all the different /t/ sound in American English. :)
Hi. Came from yesterday live lesson
Thanks
Thanks for checking out yesterday's lesson. Hope you find this lesson on the schwa sound useful. 👍
thanks a lot!!!
Hi Anabel. Thanks for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the lesson. Have a wonderful day! 😃
Interactive English anytime!😀
I've been expecting you to establish a new TH-cam channel. Twitter and this, so good ☺️👏🏼👍🏼
We're glad you like them. We're also active on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat if you happen to use those as well.
Interactive English I'm following immediately 😊👍🏼
Great
Thanks so much for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
3:49 🤯🤯😵💫
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
Worst F sound in english.. i am missing it so many times its insane. Any tips on how to find it easy? I know its an unstressed vowel allways so i can allways guess it, but its so hard on polysylabic words!!!!!! i hate it
Oh wow! Was so useful!
I always feel like I can't imitate natives speakers but now I know that I need improve my schwa sound to be better in that.
Thanks a lot. 😁🖤🙌
Hi Gonzalo. Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you found the lesson useful. Hope you have a great day! 🎉
Interactive English Have a great day too!
It is a huge mistake to say the schwa is always unstressed, it can be stressed. The other sounds can also be unstressed
Schwa is always un- stressed. That's why lingvists around the world show these vowels by this way in transcription.
@@zdorovyeuspeh17 I suggest you do your research 😂
@@tricky_english No, I did not. I just trust my lecturers in the University , while we were studying the English phonetic. The state paid some certain money to us, the students, the whole first year to understand how important this subject is - the English language's phonetic. I am not sure you are capable to understand this if you can insult other people work so easy.
@@zdorovyeuspeh17 Where and when did I insult? Don’t blame me for the things I didn’t. Not only should you study phonetics again but grammar rules as well. I don’t have time and energy to explain this to you. Good luck!
Schwa sound is so hard for me, but I get it a little more with your video...The practice continue.Could you make a podcast in the future? 😊 Thanks for all. Kind regards!
Thanks for commenting Natalia. We're glad you learned a little more about the schwa. And we appreciate your suggestion. We've been talking about starting a podcast for some time now. But we're still trying to figure out the content. But we hope to start it later this year. Stay tuned. We'll be sure to let everyone know once we get it started. 😃
Người đang cần gặp phải thứ cần
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
Good job waist
Hi Ehab. Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. Glad you found it helpful. Have a great Tuesday! 😊
2:03
Finally, I got it. Unfortunately, I think the music in the video it’s very distracted. It was hard for me to focus and listen the pronunciation. Just a kind recommendation. Regards😊
Glad you enjoyed the lesson. Thanks for your comment. 😊
❤
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
I am sure that through these videos we are going to be more capable and confident speaking English. I will catch later. See ya. I hope to dream tonight with the Schwa Sound. It was unforgettable.
Glad you enjoyed the lesson Julian. Yes, the schwa is such an important sound. Hope you have a great day! 😊
Hello there,
Could you please give me some more examples such as audio or text for SCHWA SOUND sound?
I mean a link or something like that, I am grateful🙏
Don’t you have any more lessons like this video?
I love Schwa
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
I'm watching again as I have a lot of time... lol,,,, I know an older lady that speaks word by word and even so she does the schwa sound ...such as Alana...meaning Atlanta!!!!lol
LOL...Thanks for commenting & sharing with us. Small world....I grew up in Atlanta and still have family there. 😃👍
I think it's reduce our foreign accent. I really like to learn it.
Thanks for checking out the lesson. Glad you enjoyed it. 😊
Can I drop the schwa sound while speaking a bit faster? Coz sometimes I don't hear the schwa sound in words.
Thanks for your comment. By and large, the unstressed schwa sound has an /uh/ sound. However, at times the sound is omitted altogether. For example, the word CHOCOLATE. The CO in the 2nd syllable is our unstressed schwa. But in conversational English, it's completely omitted. 😊👍
@@InteractiveEng thank you
?is there different between USA or UK
Yes there is but it depends on the words. In the future, we're hoping to do a collaboration on the differences between US and UK pronunciation. 😊
"pretty schwa sound is e hanging upside down" (from Pretty tied up, Guns n' Roses) :)
What about words such as ; fun , bus , son , sun , word etc... which have a schwa since they have just one syllable ?
All of them have a Schwa , but the phonetic symbol is not ə in some dictionaries is an upside down V .
He said a bad word him: what the h e l l at start
The spelling of Afraid was wrong.
Yeah, I caught that too late. 🤷♂️
Schwa is the most common sound in English, yet most native speakers dont know they use it :)
Very true. Thanks for commenting & have a great day! 👍
Can Ask a question what are the kinds of schwa sound?
ajudou demais
pls come to Poland, Americans are friendly people,
When I was young I LOVED PHONETIC SYMBOLS.
Nice. Thanks for commenting & sharing with us. Have a great day! 😊
5:06 "Affraid" is the obsolete spelling of "afraid".
Good eye! You're absolutely right. This was an unfortunate typo. Thanks for the heads up! 😃 👍
Nic
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
As a native English speaker learning how to teach English, this is surprisingly difficult for me to grasp because to me schwa sounds can vary depending on the word. The schwa in "together" does not sound the same as the schwa in "for". I'll grasp it eventually.
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
2018 i gonna watch all ur videos
Excellent. Thanks so much for your comment Manuel. We're glad you enjoy our lessons. Hope you have a nice day. 😊
Is this for kids
👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️
Glad you enjoyed the lesson & found it useful. 😊
Why does this happen? Is it because English speakers are lazy?
Affraid? Double f?
There's only one F. That was a typo. 😳
Please,
Go deeper on this...🙏
Thanks for commenting Leandro. There's a lot of information about the schwa sound. We may do a more comprehensive lesson later on. 👍
Would you care for acupuncture of tea.
Never noticed the schwa til now
Hi Mari. Thanks for checking out the lesson. 😊
Would you like a cup of tea?
Banana is brazilian word and the americans adapted from wrong way. The original pronunce (brazilian) is banana (banãnã). However, in the US doesn't exist the "ã" sound (nasal vowel). Therefore, americans speaks something like "B'nana"
I still wonder why Merriam-Webster's Dictionary uses the schwa indiscriminately
Thanks so much for your comment. And that's a great question which we may never know the answer. Hope you have a nice weekend. 😃👍
🕊🙏🙏🙏🙏
🗽
😃👍
Please stop the disturbing background music!
Ə ə ə eaaaaaasy
Thanks for commenting & checking out the lesson. 👍
This guy looks like Rachel from Rachel's English !!lol
Nah...she's much more attractive than this guy. 😅
Como puede un supuesto profesor enseñar inglés hablando inglés?? No te parece que algo no encaja ?? Si yo quiero aprender hablar inglés debes hablar y explicar en la otra lengua del país que quiere aprender ....
Ошо в приложении высылаю тебе фото высылаю тебе список документов необходимых для заключения договора с уважением Елена тел для связи и хорошего
I think afraid wasn't spelled correctly ...