Hey again and welcome to our second video on the topic of the schwa.
As you should remember from last time, the schwa is the most common vowel sound in English.
It helps us to speak words quicker and more fluently, and the schwa is used in unstressed
syllables.
Today, we're going to see how the schwa is used in words in longer sentences.
Now, due to the stress patterns of English, some words in full sentences will be stressed
while others will become unstressed.
Usually, the less important words in sentences, such as conjunctions and articles, will be
those that become unstressed.
For example, he was dressed up as a pirate.
I'll have fish and chips for dinner.
What do you want?
Now, how I read them just then didn't sound very natural, and that's because the words
highlighted here was, as, a, and, for, do, and you are all unimportant words in the sentence,
and should all contain the schwa sound instead of their usual vowel.
So, we should read these sentences like this.
He was dressed up as a pirate.
He was dressed up as a pirate.
I'll have fish and chips for dinner.
What do you want?
What do you want?
Now, don't forget what we learned last time, that some words, if they have two syllables,
for example, will have one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable.
So, these two words, pirate and dinner, actually also have a schwa sound in them.
So, we should read these sentences like this.
We should read these sentences like this.
He was dressed up as a pirate.
He was dressed up as a pirate.
I'll have fish and chips for dinner.
I'll have fish and chips for dinner.
What do you want?
What do you want?
OK, now it's your turn.
I'm going to show you four more sentences on the screen,
and I want you to pause the video here, take a look at them,
and try to find out which words should contain the schwa sound.
Did you find out the answers?
Let's take a look.
So, the words highlighted in black on the screen should contain schwa sounds,
because they are the less important words in the sentences.
And don't forget about what we learned last time.
If a word has more than one syllable,
and at least one of the syllables will be unstressed.
So, these underlined parts of the words here should also contain schwa sounds.
So, it's no wonder the schwa is the most common vowel sound in English.
Now, let's read all the sentences with their schwas.
Do you know the way to the train station?
Do you know the way to the train station?
OK, now it's your turn again.
Replay the previous part of the video,
then read and repeat the sentences in the list.
You may like to record yourself reading the sentences
and upload your recording to the padlet page by scanning the QR code
to see what other watchers of this video think of your schwa pronunciation.
That's it for today. See you next time.