Schwa Vowel / ə /
IPA Chart Course Pronunciation | IPA Symbols | Speaking
Pronunciation
No matter how good your English grammar and vocabulary may be, if your pronunciation is so bad that nobody can understand a word you say, then your English won't be much good as a means of communication. You might be good at grammar, have a broad vocabulary, and be able to explain all the aspects and tenses of English, but it's not much good if you can't be understood when you speak. I have designed these Activities to help you to improve your pronunciation, as well as other areas of your English.
IPA Symbols
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation that was devised in the 19th century as a standardised way of representing the sounds of speech in written form. The British English IPA chart consists of 44 symbols representing the pure vowels (monophthongs), the gliding vowels (diphthongs), and the consonant sounds of spoken British English. The Britlish Library contains a wealth of Activities to help you to learn, remember, and use the British English IPA symbols efficiently whether you are a student or a teacher.
Speaking
It's not easy to teaching speaking skills remotely through a website, however good the site is. To really practice your speaking skills, you need someone to speak to who can correct your mistakes as you go. The Activities here will go some way to helping you to improve your speaking skills by helping you to mirror the speech you hear in the lesson. In this way, you can notice how your speech differs from that in the Activities and, by recording your own speech, you can adjust your pronunciation to more accurately match that in the Activities.
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Activate your use of the Schwa, the most common English sound, with this Pronunciation Activation Pack. In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the sixth of the pure vowels the schwa / ə /. The schwa is the most commonly heard vowel sound in English. The schwa / ə / is a neutral central vowel which occurs as the peak of unstressed syllables. The exact sound and quality of the schwa / ə / depends on the sounds around it and so it is very difficult to produce it in isolation. The schwa sound / ə / has many spellings and can be made with any of the vowel letters A, E, I, O, and U, and any combination of these vowel letters. Only words of more than one syllable can contain the schwa sound. The schwa / ə / is the most commonly heard sound in British English.
IPA Chart CourseClick any symbol to go to the sound
This is our British English phonetic chart. It is the chart that we use in the Sounds British Interactive British IPA Chart eBook. It is also called the IPA chart and contains forty-four symbols. Each symbol represents a sound in English. It is important that you can distinguish each of the different sounds on the chart.
Some of these symbols in the IPA chart match the letters of the alphabet and have their usual English sound values. That is, the letter of the alphabet and the sound represented by the IPA symbol are always the same. This is only true of the following consonants: p, b, t, d, k, m, n, l, r, f, v, z, h, w. The rest of the consonant letters of the alphabet have no set sound value: c, g, j, q, s, x, y. Neither do the five vowel letters, which are: a, e, i, o, u.
Take the words cat and key for instance. Both begin with a different consonant letter. K is always pronounced as /k/ while C has no set sound value and its sound can change depending on the word in which it is found. In the case of the word cat, C is also pronounced as /k/, but it is not pronounced the same in the word chair. The IPA allows us to write down the actual sound of the word. cat becomes /kæt/ while key becomes /ki:/ and chair becomes /ʧeə/. Phonetic symbols representing sounds not letters will be written between forward slashes //. Anything you see written between forward slashes represents sounds not letters of the alphabet.
The vowels
On our chart, the vowels are in the top half of the chart in the red and green sections. The red section contains the pure vowels (monophtongs) and the green section contains the gliding vowels (diphthongs). A vowel is a sound which is produced with the whole vocal tract open so that there is no obstruction to the passage of air from the lungs and out of the nose and mouth. Vowels form the peak of syllables in words. For example, in the word vowel we have two syllables, vo and wel. You can see that both syllables contain a vowel sound supported by the consonants.
The Consonants
On our chart, the consonants are in the three rows in bottom blue section. A consonant is a basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partially obstructed, and which can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable. Consonants can only be produced with a vowel. There are twenty-one letters in the English alphabet which represent consonants. These are, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually W and Y. The letter Y can be both a consonant, as in the word yolk, and a vowel, as in the word myth and the word funny. The letter W can also be a vowel sound in very rare words such as those borrowed from the Welsh, as in cwm.
IPA Chart
A complete course to help you learn, remember, and use the 44 sounds and symbols of the British English IPA chart. Whether you are a student or a teacher, you will find this course invaluable. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) provides us with a means of identifying the 44 sounds of British English and thus overcoming the problems of English pronunciation in which the same letters or combinations of letters can have different pronunciations in different words.
/ b / in Bubble
Activate the consonant sound / b / in Bubble. In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the consonant sound / b /. We will look at the letter combinations that give the / b / sound. We will look at lots of words which have the / b / sound in them. Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / b / sound correctly. The / b / sound is a voiced bilabial plosive made by completely blocking the air flow with the lips and then releasing it explosively. The / b / sound on the chart is shown in green, which means that it is voiced. Each of the voiced sounds on the first two rows of consonants make up an unvoiced and a voiced pair. The only difference between the unvoiced and voiced pairs is the use of the vocal cords while saying them.
/ d / in Duck
Activate the consonant sound / d / in Duck. In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the consonant sound / d /. We will look at the letter combinations that give the / d / sound. We will look at lots of words which have the / d / sound in them. Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / d / sound correctly. The / d / sound is a voiced alveolar plosive made by blocking the air flow with the tongue on the alveolar ridge and then releasing it explosively. The / d / sound on the chart is shown in green, which means that it is voiced. Each of the consonant sounds on the first two rows of consonants make up an unvoiced and a voiced pair. The only difference between the unvoiced and voiced pairs is the use of the vocal cords while saying them.
/ dʒ / in Jam
Activate the consonant sound / dʒ / in Jam. In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the consonant sound / dʒ /. We will look at the letter combinations that give the / dʒ / sound. We will look at lots of words which have the / dʒ / sound in them. Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / dʒ / sound correctly. The / dʒ / sound is a voiced postalveolar affricate made by blocking the air flow with the tip of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge with the front of the tongue bunched up towards the palate. The air is released over the sharp end of the teeth to cause high-frequency turbulence. The / dʒ / sound on the chart is shown in green, which means that it is voiced. This voiced postalveolar affricate consonant sound has these letter combinations: J, G, GE, DG, DGE, DJ, and rarely DI, GG, and DE.
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