A schwa is a vowel sound. It’s the sound English uses for unstressed syllables. It sits right in the middle of the IPA vowel chart, which basically means it’s the easiest sound to make. Your tongue is in a central position, and your mouth isn’t open wide or closed.
Many letters in English words tend towards being pronounced as a “schwa” when they’re not the key syllable in the word.
For example, if you say “I gave him a present” the first ‘e’ in “present” is emphasized and the second isn’t, so the second tends to be pronounced as a “schwa”. But, if you say “I had to present the documents”, it’s the second “e” that is emphasized, and the first one turns into a schwa.
It’s also why the English article “a” and “the” are both frequently pronounced the same way (as a schwa) despite using different vowels. The articles “a” and “the” are very rarely emphasized in a sentence, and words that aren’t emphasized have their pronunciation drift towards the easy-to-pronounce schwa.
It’s the first syllable in “salmon” that’s emphasized, so the second isn’t really pronounced as an “o”, (whatever that means) it’s pronounced as a schwa instead.
A schwa is a vowel sound. It’s the sound English uses for unstressed syllables. It sits right in the middle of the IPA vowel chart, which basically means it’s the easiest sound to make. Your tongue is in a central position, and your mouth isn’t open wide or closed.
Many letters in English words tend towards being pronounced as a “schwa” when they’re not the key syllable in the word.
For example, if you say “I gave him a present” the first ‘e’ in “present” is emphasized and the second isn’t, so the second tends to be pronounced as a “schwa”. But, if you say “I had to present the documents”, it’s the second “e” that is emphasized, and the first one turns into a schwa.
It’s also why the English article “a” and “the” are both frequently pronounced the same way (as a schwa) despite using different vowels. The articles “a” and “the” are very rarely emphasized in a sentence, and words that aren’t emphasized have their pronunciation drift towards the easy-to-pronounce schwa.
It’s the first syllable in “salmon” that’s emphasized, so the second isn’t really pronounced as an “o”, (whatever that means) it’s pronounced as a schwa instead.