The “schwa” sound sounds like a short vowel u. It is often referred to as the lazy sound (uhhh…).
Read the following words:
- pizza
- banana
- granola
- salsa
- boa
- about
- amount
- ago
- away
- award
- zebra
- balloon
- alphabet
- magazine
Now read these words:
- the
- camel
- nickel
- novel
- telephone
And these:
- bottom
- carrot
- freedom
- parrot
- gallon
- cover
- action
- portion
- lotion
- ribbon
Uhhh…. what’s going on here?
Welcome to the “schwa” sound.
The schwa sound sounds a lot like short vowel u, but it can make a short i sound as well. Any vowel can make the shwa sound, which makes spelling tricky for everyone, especially kids. English accents and pronunciations of words vary. When I say “pencil,” I can hear the short i sound. However, a lot of people pronounce the i like a short u sound, so it sound like “pensul.” The same goes for “family.” Some people will say it with a distinct short i sound, and some people will say it as if it is spelled “famuly,” and some people will pronounce it “famly.”
Phonics Hero explains the schwa sound here:
Schwa Tricks:
I don’t have any tricks for which vowel to use to make a schwa sound in a given word. I think that knowing how to spell the schwa sound comes with a lot of reading and spelling practice. If you know any tricks for kids, please let me know!
Extension Ideas
When I work on schwa with my students, I share this poem by Shel Silverstein:
- I use the word “boa” as an introduction to schwa.
- What schwa foods can a boa eat? pizza, banana, granola, salsa, carrots, pasta…