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THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

1. Schwa: is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions.
   
   Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural.
   
   The phonemic symbol for this sound is .  

          Any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa and the pronunciation of a vowel letter 
          can change depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not. 

          In the word 'man' the letter 'a' has its full sound - represented by the symbol /æ/.

          In 'postman' the syllable 'man' is not stressed and the letter 'a' is pronounced as schwa,
          represented  by the symbol . 

         See more information at: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron.