English Vowels. Schwa. (No Stress!)

Posted on August 6, 2023 by PronunciationCoach

Photo by Christine Donaldson on Unsplash

The vowel Schwa was introduced previously in “What is Schwa?” and “The Sound of Schwa”, so if you are unfamiliar with Schwa, you can learn about it in those posts. This post is a little practice activity that comes from my Medium article: English Vowels – The Schwa (No Stress!).

Unstressed syllables often use a Schwa sound rather than a full clear vowel. Listen to the words below, to see if you can hear which vowels are schwa.

adjacent
almost
asleep

happen
hesitate
phonetic

prevalent
student
symbol

The Answers:

adjacent – 2^nd syllable strong with two schwas: ədjacənt

almost – 1^st syllable strong, and two clear vowels

asleep – 2^nd syllable strong with one schwa: əsleep

happen – 1^st syllable strong, one schwa: happən

hesitate – 1^st syllable strongest, just one schwa: hesətate

phonetic – 2^nd syllable strong, two schwas: phənetəc

prevalent – 1^st syllable strong, two schwas: prevələnt

student – 1^st syllable strong, one schwa: studənt

symbol – 1^st syllable strong, one schwa: symbəl

If you like this practice, there are two longer articles (with audio) about Schwa on my new Patreon page! Patreon tiers range from $2 to $100 USD per month and support my mission to create a comprehensive English pronunciation learning platform!! Come join my English pronunciation learning community on Patreon!

English Vowels. The Pair “OW” – Do You Know How?

Posted on July 7, 2023 by PronunciationCoach

What is the sound of the vowels in “know” and “how”? Are they the same? Words like these are often mispronounced because, even though they are spelled similarly, their pronunciation is actually different!

Two Options for “OW”

These are the two sounds:
>> Long-O (as in “go”) – The word “know” sounds exactly the same as the word “no”!
>> Vowel /aw/ (or IPA /au/) – This is like the word “wow” or “house”.

First, the Non-Predictable Groups

These two groups of words are not predictable and simply need to be memorized.

Long-O (as in “go”)		Vowel /aw/ (as in “wow”)
blow bowl crow flow glow grow know low owe	own row show slow snow stow throw tow	allow brow chow cow endow how meow now	owl ow! plow pow prow vow wow yow

When you know the correct sound for those words, then you will also know the correct sound for any words that are built from them, such as: bowling, growth, anyhow, owlet…

Second, the Predictable Groups

All other words follow a clear pattern, depending on whether “OW” is at the end of the word, or in the middle of the word. Here are just a few examples; there are many more that fit these two categories, and are easily predictable.

*“-OW” at the end*		*“-OW-“ in the middle*
Long-O (as in “go”)		Vowel /aw/ (as in “wow”)
borrow follow meadow mellow	narrow shadow swallow window	brown crowd frown growl	browse drowsy flower vowel

Again, when larger words are built with these kinds of words, they keep their original sound: follower, shadowy, brownish, flowery…

EXCEPTION! One word, “know” changes sound when it forms the word “knowledge”.

You can find a longer article on this topic on Medium, with additional examples plus some oddball words that use both sounds that are important to know about. Check it out!!

Sell or Sale? Practice Exercises! Long-A and Short-e

Posted on June 10, 2023 by PronunciationCoach

This is a follow up to my post “Sell or Sale?” There is also an extended version article on this topic on Medium, plus a longer version of these Practice Exercises on my Patreon page!!

Listening and speaking practice with word pairs.

Practice 1. Listen and imitate both words below.

Practice 2. Listen and guess: You will hear just one of the words – which one do you hear?
(The answers are at the bottom, below the image)

1. based/baste — best
2. braid – bread
3. fail — fell
4. gate — get
5. jail — gel
6. late — let

7. lace — less
8. main/mane — men
9. pain — pen
10. raced — rest
11. rake — wreck
12. raid/rayed — red

13. taste — test
14. take – tech
15. wait — wet
16. wane — when
17. waste/waist — west
18. whale/wail — well

ANSWERS for Practice 2

1. based/baste
2. bread
3. fail
4. gate
5. gel
6. late

7. less
8. men
9. pain
10. rest
11. wreck
12. raid/rayed

13. taste
14. tech
15. wait
16. wane
17. waste/waist
18. well

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English pronunciation for learners of American English

Tag Archives: pronounce English

English Vowels. Schwa. (No Stress!)

English Vowels. The Pair “OW” – Do You Know How?

Sell or Sale? Practice Exercises! Long-A and Short-e