ə
Schwa, the neutral vowel
The weakest, most relaxed vowel there is: open your mouth slightly and let the voice out. Every vowel letter can spell it - about, sofa, the, banana.
The schwa symbol (ə) and IPA stress marks
The schwa is an upside-down e, ə, and it is the most common vowel sound in English. It is the relaxed, unstressed uh at the start of about, at the end of sofa and in the middle of banana - three schwas in that one word, /bəˈnɑːnə/. English has no letter for it, so it hides behind every vowel letter in the alphabet.
That is why stress and the schwa belong in the same lesson. English saves full vowels for stressed syllables and squashes the rest towards /ə/. A small vertical mark, ˈ, goes BEFORE the stressed syllable: /ˈsəʊfə/ is SO-fa, /əˈbaʊt/ is a-BOUT. A low mark, ˌ, marks a weaker secondary stress, as in /ˌʌndəˈstænd/.
The mark goes before the whole syllable, not before the vowel. That catches everyone once: in /təˈdeɪ/ the stress is on the whole syllable /deɪ/, d included.
Two more weak vowels finish the English set. The /i/ at the end of happy and city is a short, unstressed cousin of /iː/, and /u/ is the same idea for /uː/, heard in words like usual. From this lesson on, the drill uses longer words with their stress marks.
The symbols
ˈ
Primary stress mark
Goes before the stressed syllable: /ˈhæpi/ is HAP-py, /rɪˈmembə/ is re-MEM-ber.
ˌ
Secondary stress mark
A lighter beat before the main one: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ is un-der-STAND with a little weight on un.
- understand/ˌʌndəˈstænd/
i
Weak i, as in happy
No length mark: the short, unstressed ee at the end of happy and city.
u
Weak u, as in usual
The unstressed cousin of /uː/: the middle of usual and influence.
Drill
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Part of Kilo Lingo Plus - the lesson above is free to read.
Which word is this?
/ˈeniθɪŋ/