The Schwa | Ultimate British Pronunciation Lesson 3

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- Welcome back to the Church of the Holy Schwa,

on the Holy Pronunciation Channel.

Can you feel it?

Can you feel the power of the Schwa?

And the Lord speaks through me with British pronunciation.

And today friends and family,

we read from the holiest of books,

the Ultimate British Pronunciation course,

get yours now at https://www.papateachme.com.

Now the devil, the devil,

is the American English (grunts) sound.

I mean don't get me wrong it's fine,

if you want to learn American English pronunciation.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that,

but here we learn British English pronunciation.

Praise the Schwa!

I said this sound!

It's the most common sound in British English pronunciation,

and if you plan to speak like British people,

you need to learn it.

Yep, the schwa is the most common sound

in British English pronunciation.

And this is the symbol for it.

You'll see this in dictionaries

where they show the phonetic pronunciation of words.

And also it's definitely in your English classroom

I mean, is it really an English classroom

if it doesn't have that phonetic chart

that everyone ignores?

So this is how you make the schwa sound (grunts).

Do it with me, copy me, (grunts).

Make your mouth shape the same as my mouth shape.

One thing to be careful of.

Are you saying, uh, or ah.

Your lips, your mouth should not have any tension at all.

Relax your lips.

Let the jaw drop slightly and just push out a lazy sound.

So when do we use it?

Well answer this, what is my job?

Say it at your screen.

I want you and you and you and you to close your eyes

and say it with me.

Teacher, exactly.

Let's try some more words.

I will give you a clue, a hint to what the word is.

You have to say the word to your screen.

David Attenborough.

He makes documentaries about what?

When you have legal trouble, legal problems,

who should you see?

What is her job?

She's a lawyer, lawyer.

Say it with me, lawyer.

Expecting a man.

Of course you were 'cause you're a bad person.

Okay, next, if you feel sick, you feel ill.

You go to the hospital and you see a what?

Congratulations.

You're a sexist.

That's a male nurse.

I wrote this and it's so silly.

That's a nurse.

You wanted to say-

Say it with me, doctor.

When a word like these finish in an ah sound,

American English pronunciation pronounces it

with a heavy er sound.

For example, teacher, doctor, lawyer,

but British English replaces that or sound

with a lazy schwa.

Teacher, doctor, lawyer.

However, remember that when you make this sound,

it shouldn't sound strong or emphasized.

Your mouth should be completely relaxed

and let out a short (grunts) sound.

Actually let's make this better.

Let's compare American and British English Pronunciation

of these words.

So don't, over-exaggerate the sound.

For example, it's not like, docta.

No, that will sound weird.

Don't be weird.

So the schwa isn't formal or informal.

It's not Cockney or posh.

It's just the most common sound that we all use.

And it's not only the R sound

which is replaced with a schwa.

For example, how do you pronounce this word?

Where is the stress in this word?

There are two syllables,

but which syllable is stressed?

Police or police?

What do you think?

Well, it's the second syllable, police.

So that first syllable is not stressed

and that is what we call a weak form.

It's a weak form and that becomes a schwa sound.

Other examples.

Let's try this.

Two syllables again.

Which syllable is stressed?

Okay, so you made your decision.

If that syllable is stressed,

the other one is unstressed, right?

It's a schwa sound (grunts).

So try to say this word with that schwa sound

where you think it is.

This one is stressed so pencil, pencil.

The first syllable is stressed.

So the second syllable has that schwa sound.

Say it with me one more time, pencil.

Also did you notice the L sound?

If you watched the last lesson,

that's a dark L and we can change that

to a wuh sound.

Pencil, pencil.

That's an option in pronunciation.

You don't have to change it to a wuh sound.

You could just say pencil.

Both are totally fine.

It's your preference.

All right, three syllable word.

This one, there are two stressed syllables here.

So one has that weak form.

Which one do you think?

So those two syllables are stressed.

We will pronounce them properly,

but the middle syllable is unstressed weak-form schwa.

So Saturday, Saturday.

That's just in words.

But this is also true in full sentences.

I want a coffee.

If I just said to you want coffee,

you understand that I want coffee.

So these two are the most important words,

the main content of the sentence, right?

So those two are like extra,

not really important information.

They become weak forms.

And also just sound like a schwa.

And this is where you understand intonation, right?

So if those are the important words,

those are the words that we stress.

So I want a coffee.

Did you hear the schwas and the stressed words?

I want a coffee.

See, and also notice that the word coffee.

Yes, it has two syllables.

Yes, the first syllable is stressed,

but if the vowel sound is an E,

you don't change it to a schwa.

It wouldn't be, I want a coffa.

No, that doesn't exist.

Okay, so using everything we've learned

in these three lessons.

I know, can you believe we've done three lessons already?

How might you pronounce these three sentences.

Again, remember there's no one perfect correct way.

There are many options.

We've already covered some of them

and we will cover more in future lessons.

But for today, I just want you

to think about unstressed syllables,

important words in the sentences.

Also, yeah, play with your T sound.

The glottal T, the true T, posh T.

If you want to change the L sound to wuh sound,

also, if you want to drop any Hs.

Just as an example,

I might read this as the first one.

Hang on a minute.

Is that the police I can hear?

Again, that time might not be how I pronounce it

It all depends on my mood

and how fast I'm speaking, blah, blah, blah.

But the first H I dropped.

The one in here, I kept that one for some reason.

I don't know why,

but this lesson is focusing on the schwa.

So I made the ah a schwa.

Hang on a minute.

Is that the police?

Now very, very often the is pronounced with a schwa.

I have a whole video about when you pronounce the

and the and everything in this video.

So if you want to learn more, click that,

however, let's move on for now.

Number two, can you pass me a bit of pizza?

And number three, are we meeting up Saturday?

Yeah, these are all questions.

I will go into more detail about focus

and word stress in questions in the next video.

I want you to play around with the sounds

in these three sentences.

See what works for you.

What feels comfortable for your pronunciation style.

Again, remember this course is about developing

your own individual British pronunciation style.

It's not about copying any one person,

and if you haven't already,

make sure you get the free e-book for this course.

It'll really help you remember everything better

and follow the lessons much more easily.

You can get it at https://www.papateachme.com.

Just put your email in.

I'll send it to your email.

Thank you, fellow believers of the Holy Church of the Schwa.

If you want to donate all of your money

to the Holy church of the Schwa,

you can call this number right now

and give just all of your money.

None of this is real.

There's no Church of the Schwa,

but if you want to get

the Ultimate British Pronunciation course,

get it free at https://www.papateachme.com.

(peaceful music)