Schwa

Stressed vowels are properly pronounced. A schwa is an unstressed vowel sound. It can be any vowel or combination of vowels, e.g. a as in alone, e as in system, i as in easily, o as in gallop, and u as in circus.

A schwa is pronounced "uh", such as the sound babies make. It is similar to a short French unaccented e. It is prounounced in a, an and the . Before the letter n it sounds like in. Here, the tonic accent is in bold type and schwas are underlined.

"-----able" / "------ible" words: readable, legible, illegible, admissable

"-----ain" words: bargain, Britain, captain, certain, curtain, fountain, mountain

"-----ful" words: awful, beautiful, careful, colourful, delightful, grateful, helpful, joyful, meaningful, painful, powerful, purposeful, tasteful, thankful, thoughtful, useful

"-----graphy" words: biography, photography, pornography

"-----ine" words: engine, examine, determine

"-----land" words: England, Finland, Holland, Kirkland, Zealand

"-----less" words: faceless, faithless, priceless, reckless, seamless, timeless

"-----logy" words: analogy, apology, biology, eulogy, geology, technology

-----man" words: alderman, baseman, foreman, horseman, salesman, spokesman

"-----ous" words: various, humorous

"-----try" words: idolatry, poetry, symmetry, trigonometry

Miscellaneous: ability, afford, again, ago, American, barrel, carpet, coconut, college, committee, cupboard, denim, develop, effect, enough, foreign, Japan, lettuce, medal, menace, method, o'clock, occur, open, Parliament, partial, photographer, pigeon, pilot, potato, potential, probably, problem, promise, purpose, Quebec, salad, soda, spinach, station, stomach, syrup, tomato, upon, vegetable

A schwa followed by an r sounds like er

"-----or/our" words: colour behaviour, favour, flavour, honour, Junior, motor, neighbour, savour, Senior

"-----ar" words: backward, calendar, familiar, forward, hangar, Harvard, nuclear, particular, peculiar, regular, similar

In "-----ate" words, the schwa followed by a t sounds like it.

First of two syllables stressed

climate, pirate, private, template

First of three syllables stressed

accurate, aggregate,¹ adequate, alternate,¹ candidate, chocolate,* corporate,* delegate,¹ delicate, desolate,¹ desperate, directorate, doctorate, duplicate,¹ estimate,¹ fortunate, graduate,¹ intimate,¹ intricate, literate, moderate,¹ obstinate, passionate, secretariate, separate,¹ temperate, ultimate

* Often the middle syllable is not pronounced.

¹ These words are also verbs if they rhyme with "ate." Don't generalize, thinking that all verbs ending in -ate can also be schwas. Only these examples can.

Second of four syllables stressed

affectionate, affiliate,¹ appropriate,¹ approximate,¹ associate,¹ certificate, compassionate, considerate, deliberate,¹ elaborate,¹ electorate, illiterate, immediate, inaccurate, inadequate, legitimate, subordinate¹

Third of five syllables stressed

inappropriate, illegitimate, inconsiderate, insubordinate, intermediate

Woman & Women

This is one of the most common pronunciation problems in English. The problem comes from the fact that there are two syllables in these words and in both, it is the first one that is stressed. Therefore, to distinguish between the two, anglophones change the o sound. The plural sounds like ouimmine. The problem doesn't occur with man or men since they are both one syllable, so the vowels are clearly stressed.

---age & ---ege

Continuing on in this main idea of schwas are words ending with -age or -ege. Most of these words are pronounced idge, like the ending of fridge.

First of two syllables stressed:

adage, baggage, bandage, breakage, cabbage, carriage, college, cottage, courage, damage, dosage, footage, fruitage, garbage, hommage, image, knowledge, language, luggage, manage, marriage, message, mileage, mortgage, package, postage, salvage, sausage, savage, shortage, shrinkage, storage, usage, village, vintage, voyage, wreckage

First of three syllables stressed:

average, heritage, leverage, orphanage

Middle syllable stressed:

advantage, discourage, encourage, envisage

Exceptions

These are pronounced like "-----âge"

First syllable stressed:

arbitrage, camouflage, entourage,

Last syllable stressed:

barrage, collage, corsage, dressage, espionage, garage, massage, mirage, montage, portage, triage