The Neutral English Sound (The Schwa Sound /ə/)

We begin with this vowel sound for several reasons:

1. It is the most common vowel sound in American English. Most words of more than one syllable contain this sound in the unstressed syllable.

2. Many one-syllable words are pronounced with this sound

3. It can be spelled of any of the vowel five letters (a/e/i/o/u), and also with combinations of these letters.

4. Native speakers automatically know when to pronounce this sound.

5. Pronouncing this vowel sound correctly is one of the most important skills necessary for easy and clear communication.

How to produce the neutral sound 

It is so easy to pronounce. To make it, just open your mouth very slightly and make sound like "uh" very quickly and very relaxed. It's just that simple.

Example of the schwa sound

ago, about, effect, upon, off

today, open, problem salad, connect, salesman, breakfast, captain, station, orange, 

able, suitable, soda

Note that the schwa sound can be exist in the first of the word, or in the middle of the word, or in the end of the word as shown above.

 It is preferred to memorize some important and wide used words that spelled with another vowel sound, but pronounced as the schwa sound:

words spelled with "o" but pronounce as "/ə/"

above, another, brother, color, cover, come, does, done, dove, from, gonna, love, Monday, money, month, mother, none, nothing, of, once, one, other, oven, some, something, somewhere, son, ton, tongue, won, wonderful

words spelled with "ou" but pronounce as "/ə/"

double, country, couple, tough, Douglas, cousin, enough, touch, rough, southern 

words spelled with "oo" but pronounce as "/ə/"

blood, flood

Finally, you should remember that mastering this sound will make a huge difference in your accent to be closer to the American native speakers. Just keep practicing and it would be easier overtime.


I hope you found this lesson helpful. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Thanks.