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The schwa sound
Words that start with a schwa
about, appear, ability, account, addition, advice, afraid, amazing, astonishing, attention
(but not abacus, acid, adult, alert, alphabet, arrogant, apparatus, etc)
edition (but not education or examination), election, eleven (but not elephant or elevate)
objection, object (verb), obscure, observe
Words that have a schwa in the first syllable
terrific, surprise, directions, present (verb), repair, prepare, belief, delete, reduce
(but not terrifying, direct, present (noun), replace, preparation, demonstrate, redirect, etc)
police, today, potato, pronounce, together
(but not policy, tolerant, post, proper, total, etc)
support, suppose, suggest, sustain
(but not sudden, subtract, suffer, subtle, etc)
Words that have a schwa in the middle
elephant, tendency, accident, difficult, politics, president, sensible
quality, quantity, reality, vanity, history
Words that have a schwa in the last syllable
central, London, seven, human, Roman, mountain, problem, logical, chemical
intermediate, approximate, separate, delicate, associate (noun), passionate, definite
(but not create, communicate, motivate, debate, dedicate, translate, advocate, consolidate, rotate, finite, etc)
needed, wanted, interested, hated, shouted, painted, visited, lifted
Compare with words where we don't say the final vowel ("elision")
loved, liked, looked, asked, learned, listened, walked, played, stopped,
laughed, missed, bored, recognised, fixed, watched, showed, used
Words that end in a schwa
father, mother, sister, brother
mister, never, other, rather, teacher, tiger, blister, foster
idea, picture, Russia, Java, thorough
Word pairs that sound identical ("homophones") because of the schwa
These words don't sound similar; they really do sound identical: