Schwa /ə/ sound

Types of syllable stress: The strongest syllable *higher pitch *longer vowel *louder sound. The rest of the syllables are either regular or a weak stress. Regular stress is a regular vowel not higher not longer not louder. Unstressed syllables The vowel reduces to /ə/ or /i/ Examples: Opportunity ah pur TUN uh di Holiday HAH luh day Congratulations kn gra dju LAY shuns Note: in words with an ending like shun the strongest stress is before the ending syllable. If you can reduce a vowel to a schwa and the word still makes sense, it's probably correct to do so.

Schwa vowel sound (ə) sounds like a soft short U (/uh/) or short I (/ĭ/). Try saying "kg" Schwa is the "uh" between k and g. Schwa can sound like /i/ in syllables that end in /n/ or /t/

The Lazy Vowel The schwa is also known as the lazy vowel because your mouth barely has to open to make the sound, and it’s a weak sound. In some words, it’s so weak we barely hear it, such as in the words ‘interest’ and ‘chocolate’.

For example, consider the sentence: The boy is mad. Notice how boy and mad are stressed and sound different. Words with more than one syllable will have stressed and unstressed syllables, as in the word mir/a/cle.

The English language is a stress-timed language. This means that some words and syllables take longer to say than others. These are referred to as stressed or accented. The words that communicate the most essential parts of a message (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) are stressed in an English sentence. Function words, such as pronouns, articles, and conjunctions, are usually not stressed.

Accenting Patterns There are 3 common accenting patterns in words with more than one syllable: 1. Accent the root of a word, not the prefix or suffix: jumping JUMP ing 2.If the root word has 2 syllables, we usually accent the first syllable: fashion FA shuhn 3.Words with 3+ syllables that end in a silent-e stress the second to last syllable. contaminate kuhn TAM uh nate illuminate uhl LU muh nate

*If the schwa comes before n or t, it is usually pronounced as a short /i/. BLANkət ROCKət BUCKət CARrət HUmən THOUsənd PRESənt enVIronment (ən VI rən mənt) REAsən RIBbən Vol ən TEER