English Pronunciation - vowel changes in stressed and unstressed syllables
I’d like to teach you another very important rule about English pronunciation that a lot of my students have a problem with, a lot of people make this mistake listen carefully: I’m going to say some words in two different ways, Which sounds correct to you? Special, Special, Problem, Problem, Pilot, Pilot.
The second word was the standard correct accent, so what I want to teach you today is about what happens to the vowel “a”, “e”, “i”, ”o”, ”u”, they change sometimes and very often this sound /æ/ can sound completely different for example “land” / læˈnd / and “land” /lənd/ this are two different sounds this /æ/ and this is /ə/, listen “land” / læˈnd /, “England” / ɪˈŋglənd /, I didn’t say /ɪŋglænd/, Why not?, Why did I change the vowel? Because of the importance of the rule of stress and reduction, in English you always have to ask yourself which part of the word is stressed, and when you know the answer then you have to reduce everything else around it, and when you reduce the vowel “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”, can sound like this /ə/, so the spelling doesn’t matter.
That makes English really difficult actually, because a lot of people who don’t know this rule would pronounce every vowel equally. They would say “banana” /bænænæ/ we have three /æ/ /æ/ /æ/, three “a’s”. In English we don’t keep everything the same length, we stress one and we reduce the rest, in this case “banana” / bənæˈnə/ the second syllable is stressed so we would say like this “ba” “na” na” / bənæˈnə/, so is “ə” “æ” “ə”, “banana” / bənæˈnə/. The spelling says the same but the sound changes completely.
Let’s put you a few more examples of that, look at this “e” “men” /ɛ/ / mɛˈn /. But look at this, this “e” and this “e” are totally different, we don’t say /sɪstɛm/, we say / sɪˈstəm/ the first syllable is stressed, the second syllable is reduced, so if I get my rubber band /sɪˈstəm/ two syllables, watch /sɪˈstəm/ /sɪˈstəm/ /sɪˈstəm/, this “e” becomes the sound /ə/ it’s a reduced vowel, let’s try this word, which one is correct /pɹɑblɛm/ or /pɹɑˈbləm/. /pɹɑˈbləm/ stress the first one reduce the second one. Same thing “man” /mæˈn/ make it big /æ/ /mæˈn/. But what happens to these “a’s”, with Japan /ʤəpæˈn/ and Brazil /bɹəzɪˈl/, the first syllable is reduce and the second syllable is stressed, so this one sounds like /ə/, this “a” would sound like /æ/, so we don’t say I am from /ʤæpæn/ or /ʤæəpæn/, we do it like this /ʤəpæˈn/, /ʤəpæˈn/, /ʤəpæˈn/, make this one disappear its almost nonexistent, it’s very, very, very short /ʤəpæˈn/. Same thing with this, what do we say? “Brazil” /bɹæzɪˈl/, I am from “Brazil” /bɹæzɪˈl/, no this is no longer /æ/ it’s /ə/, “Brazil” /bɹəzɪˈl/ “Brazil” /bɹəzɪˈl/.
So you see, you always have to ask yourself which syllable is stressed, when you find out try to reduce the vowels around them. And make them sound like /ə/. Now I would like you try this exercise by yourself. Ask yourself which syllable should be stressed. That means the vowel should be long, and what syllable should be reduced, unstressed, so the vowel almost disappear, let’s practice the name of some countries.
Look at the first name “Sweden” /swiˈdən/ two syllables which one is stressed, the first one, Ok? What happens to the second one /swiˈdən/ /swiˈdən/ /swiˈdən/, so don’t say I am from /swiˈdæn/. Say I am from /swiˈdən/.
How do we say this? What happen to the “i” and the “u”. Do we say /bɛˈlʤium/ or do we say /bɛˈlʤəm/. So the “i” and the “u” sound exactly the same as the “e” in “Sweden” /swiˈdən/ “Belgium” /bɛˈlʤəm/. The next one. You try it. Which one is reduced? OK. If you said /fɪˈnlənd/ you are correct the “a” is reduced /fɪˈnlənd/. Don’t say /fɪˈnlænd/. OK. One more. How about this one? Did you get it right? Did you say /ʤɔˈɹdən/ /ʤɔˈɹdən/. Don’t say: He is from “Jordan” /ʤɔˈɹdæn/ reduce that “a” and say /ʤɔˈɹdən/.
OK. Now let’s practice some sentences. Repeat after me.
That’s a special method. /ðæts ə spɛʃəl mɛθəd/
That’s a special method. /ðæts ə spɛʃəl mɛθəd/
That’s a modern system. /ðæts ə mɑdəɹn sɪstəm/
That’s a modern system. /ðæts ə mɑdəɹn sɪstəm/
The doctor said it was a common problem. /ðə dɑktəɹ sɛd ɪt wɑz ə kɑmən pɹɑbləm/
The doctor said it was a common problem. /ðə dɑktəɹ sɛd ɪt wɑz ə kɑmən pɹɑbləm/
Lincoln and Edison are famous Americans. /lɪŋkən ænd ɛdɪsən ɑɹ feɪməs əmɛɹɪkənz/
Lincoln and Edison are famous Americans. /lɪŋkən ænd ɛdɪsən ɑɹ feɪməs əmɛɹɪkənz/
Any vowel “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, or “u” can be reduced, and it can sound like /ə/ in unstressed syllable, if you keep practicing, this concept of stress and reduction, it is going to greatly change the sound of your English, you are going to sound more natural and more like a native speaker.
Thanks for watching.
Remember this: “Work hard, dream big, and never stop trying!”