
In the English language there is an interesting sound that can come from any of the vowels – a, e, i, o, u, and y. The sound is called a schwa.
A schwa is represented in print with an upside-down e, like this: ?. The sound a schwa makes sounds like a short u (“?” or “uh”).
Schwas are only found in multi-syllable words. Let me give an example. Cotton. You don’t say, cot-ton (where the o sounds like the word ton), you say, cotton (and the second o sounds like a short u). This is a schwa.
In the word, love, the o sounds like short u, but it is not a schwa because it is a one syllable word. Same with the word “was.” Not a schwa.
An “a” at the end of a word will always be a schwa. Examples: cola (c? l?), mocha, umbrella, pizza, Montana.
Here a few more examples of words with a schwa – there are many in the English language.
- Serpent
- Tomato
- Velvet
- Signal
- Mental
- Lemon
- Denim
- Above
- Cadet
- Pecan
- Beside
- Mitten
- Napkin
Want more? Check out the Workbook Store. This information plus worksheets are in the workbook store.
(9) Comments
[…] be a stand-alone vowel, but not a stand-alone consonant. As in, a lone (the a is a syllable and a schwa). I’ve gone through what REVLOC is, but now I want to go through each letter in individual posts. […]
[…] The pattern of the Magic E syllable is: vowel-consonant-silent e (vce) as in pine (or using it in a word, al-pine, di-vine (the i in the first syllable is a schwa)) […]
[…] can have a schwa sound in words like: doctor, visitor, mayor, error, worst, worth. We don’t say doc-tor, we say, […]
[…] accenting, a helpful rule is that the accent NEVER falls on a schwa, ever. So if there is a schwa in a syllable, don’t accent that […]
[…] ? (schwa) – a (above), e (legend), I (unicorn) o (cotton), u (fortune), y (syringe) […]
[…] cannot hear the spelling of some suffixes because the schwa is present. Examples, -ance, -ence, -able, -ible, -ant, […]
Thanks for the post! I have a question… you say that the schwa is only in multisyllabic words but what about words like “the” and “a”?
One syllable words do make the sound, but are not considered a schwa. A tad confusing, but it’s true — a schwa is only multi-syllable words.
[…] written about Schwa before, but I’m seeing a lot of questions around this topic so I want to take a deeper dive into […]