What is that sound? Schwa?

The "schwa" sound [ə] is actually the most common vowel sound–in every dialect of English. Vowel sounds make a word louder or softer, and to make a sound louder, you have to open your mouth more, and raise your voice.

However, the schwa sound is spoken from the throat and sounds like a shorter-than-short "u" sound ("uh"). It is also said more softly than other vowels, and you barely have to open your mouth to say it. As a result, some people consider the schwa to be a "lazy" vowel.

Every vowel can be pronounced as a "schwa" sound in different words–but not in all words–so how to you know when to use it?

It's all about rhythm.

Because English is a stress-timed language, the words that communicate the most important parts of a message (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are stressed (spoken louder, longer or with a different pitch).

Other words (function words like auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, prepositions) are not usually stressed, to maintain a regular rhythm. For the same reason, words with more than one syllable have both stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak syllables). Unstressed words and syllables are usually said faster and at a lower volume than stressed words or syllables. As a result, the vowel sound in an unstressed word or syllable can lose its purity and become a schwa.

For example,

banana = (buh NA nuh)

taken = (TAYK-uhn)

pencil = (PEHN suhl)

supply = (suh PLAI)

about = (uh BOWT)

cinema = (CIH nuh muh)

helicopter = (HEH luh kahp tur)

bacon = (BAY kuhn)

adopt = (uh DAHPT)

ethyl = (EH thuhl)

syringe = (suh RIHNJ)