Silent Vowels Control Speech Stress | #093

Sometimes when schwa ə appears midword, the American accent omits the sound altogether, and drops it. This doesn't happen with all midword schwas ə, but is found in many 3 and 4 syllable words.
Many people say silent schwas ə as the actual letter. Know that while you are well understood, this may make your speech sound slowed down.

Check out my video course on Udemy to master your use of Syllable stress!
https://www.udemy.com/course/command-the-american-accents-rhythm-and-pronunciation/?referralCode=C96318A268600601A20F

Follow along with these words to better your use of reduced vowel sounds!
Different = DIFF rənt  |  Comfortable = KUMF tər bəll  |  Every = EV ree  |  Florida = FLOR də

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Welcome to the accent training podcast, a podcast where I show you how to harness the potential of your spoken English. My name is pat I'm from Toronto, Canada. And I've got a question for you. Do you ever wonder how you pronounce words D than Americans? Of course you do, or else you wouldn't be listening to this podcast right now? Well, the key to changing the way that you pronounce words and getting them closer to that of an American is just by taking things one step at a time taking on a handful of words, practic them , repeating them, trying to work them into your daily life. We're gonna look at a handful of words with reduced vowels, where the vowel is written, but it's not actually pronounced. Let's consider a word that I've already said , uh , differently, differently. Now I notice a lot of non-native speakers will say differently, differ differently instead of just a quick, different, differently, differently, differently. What's the difference there? Well, there's a letter in the middle that I'll hear non-native speakers say which native speakers will typically skip altogether, just because it's so unstressed and quiet. We're gonna look at words like this today, and we're gonna see how you can adjust them to your own speech. And we'll get to that in just a moment, but just before we do, I just wanna remind everybody listening, make sure that you hit subscribe. If you like the stuff that you're hearing, you gotta hit subscribe to this podcast because you will be updated as soon as I've got new things out. And then you can always keep up with all the new information. Typically, I get out, you know, maybe two episodes a week, but I've been spoiling you folks lately. I've been putting out three a week, but , uh , I'll go back down to two soon enough, hit S and you'll know whenever there's new stuff out. Now, if you're looking for some hard hitting content between podcast episodes, check out the video course, folks, the video course is going to show you some exact workings of the American accent and how you can adjust them to your own speech. Check it out. I'll put a link in the here. If you click that link at the very least, you can check out one or two of the lessons, see how they apply to you. So click that link in the description. It'll bring you to this great website U where you can explore this video course and see how it applies to your own spoken English. Let's get to today's lesson folks. Let's get to the good stuff and take on some of these words right here. In my previous accent related episode, I was talking about the schwa . The schwa sound that unstressed quick and quiet sound that we hear in words like relax, re relax, or pizza pizza, getting that quick and quiet. Uh , problem, problem again, strong in the beginning, but that E is not making a regular E sound . I'm not saying pro , but problem , given it AOI. Now, previously, we saw a good handful of two syllable words, words with two units of sound, two combinations of consonant, vowel, consonant vow. Sometimes when schwa appears in the middle of a word, Americans will omit the sound altogether and drop it. This doesn't happen with all schwas in the middle of the word, but it's found in many, three and four syllable words. A lot of people will say schwa just as a regular letter. And while that will be well understood, it can make your speech sound like you're slowing it down to trying to enunciate every sound. Maybe even put across a bit of a somber tone or something more serious than you're really intending. So let's take a look at an example where the first one that we're seeing here different, different that D and I in the beginning, it's real strong, right? D but then <affirmative> F E R fur fur friend . I'm just going straight from the F to the R. I'm not going Derrin but different , different. So that middle E totally omit that, take it out. And it's just a quick two syllable sounding word. It's spelled as if they're three, but it's only got two different. Let's see another one here. Every , every again, it's spelled every E V E R Y, but I'm taking that middle E right out, ere strong, weak . Here's another one here, comfortable, comfortable, strong in the beginning. And then instead of a comfort affordable, I'm kind of rearranging some of the letters there. So instead of comfort, affordable, I'm going comfort, comfortable rearranging those letters, kind of omitting that, oh , in the middle comfortable. And this next one I'm gonna bring to your attention is a state floor , beautiful place in the United States. It's got Miami, it's got alligators, a lot of swampy area, and it's got friendly people and people from all over the world. It's a very interesting place, Florida. And one more interesting thing about Florida is that that eye in the middle totally drops out to just be a floor , duh . Now, again, it's not incorrect to say Florida, Florida. It's just not the way people commonly say it these days. It's not wrong at all. It's just not what we anticipate to hear Florida. Totally fine. But Florida, Florida, a little bit quicker there. So like I said, the key to pick it this up as repetition. So let's put these into context now, considering that word different. That's what we started with right different. Now here's a quick little idiomatic expression with the word, different, different strokes for different folks, different strokes for different folks. This is like, say different things are interesting to different people. Some things make some people happy. Some things make other people happy, different strokes for different folks. Repeat that one back to me there. I hope you did because getting that different has two quick syllables. That's the key different. Now, the next word that we're working with is this word. Every, every which, again, we're dropping that E from the middle of, and we're just giving it a quick two syllable sound. Every now, repeat back to me every other day, every other day. What does that mean every other day? Now, this is something I really don't hear a lot of non-native speakers say, but native speakers will use it regularly. Every other day. This is saying every two days, suppose somebody says I sweep my house every other day. Every two days, they sweep their whole house. Every two days. I wish I could say I did it that much, but I don't maybe a once a week kind of guy, maybe every other day, every other day is ideal when you're sweeping your house every two days, every other day. All right . So now we've got different. Every we're seeing we're dropping a vow from the middle and we're just making it two quick syllables. Nice, quick sound different. Every now the next one is spelled as a four syllable word, but we only pronounce three of them. And we rearrange some of the letters come to comfortable. Not that that's incorrect. You can say comfortable, but you're not listening to this just because you want to be correct. You're listening because you want a specific sound. So not comfortable, but comfortable. Now here's a little idiom with comfortable to be comfortable in one's own skin in your own skin, in your own body to be comfortable in your own body. That's kind of another word for saying confident, right? To have some self confidence you're comfortable in your own skin. You're comfortable being yourself comfortable in one's own skin. When we're comfortable in our own skin, we can do a lot of great things. You know, when we're comfortable being ourselves, then we're not worried about other people's judgments because we hold ourselves to our personal standard, right? <affirmative> when you're comfortable in your own skin, things start happening, comfortable in your own skin. Comfortable. Now this next one here, Florida, Florida, now, Florida. There's two things that you do in Florida. You either go to Florida on a vacation, or you retire in Florida. A lot of people from the Northern United States and from Canada, really like to retire in Florida. It's a beautiful place, nice weather all year Florida. And so repeat that back to me, retiring in Florida, let's hear you say it retiring in Florida. And here's the other vacation in Florida vacation in Florida. Now I understand some of you may be living in Florida. Some of you may be retired and some of you may, you know, have recently moved to Florida or whatever it is. Maybe you disagree with me, but of you don't live in Florida. And so for most of you, it's relevant, but I know, okay, I've got a few listeners in Florida and I'm happy to have you folks. And now you can say the name of your state quickly and confidently, and kinda blend in with all the other Americans, Florida. Now, there are many, many more words and spoken English that this happens with this. Isn't unique to just a couple of words. If you look closely at a lot of words with three syllables or more, there's often one of those which contains a silent OI . Now I'm certain that you're capable of learning these words. I'm certain that you're capable of picking up on this habit for her own speech and using it to control your own stress of speech. I know that you can. However, like I said, if you try to take on all the vocabulary at once, you're gonna be overwhelmed. And if you try to do everything, you're gonna end up doing nothing. It's just the way it is. We get overwhelmed and we say, ah , I'm gonna watch Netflix. I do it. I do that sometimes, but it's a bad habit. And it's a habit that I'm gonna help you with today. My friend, because I'm not gonna give you any more words about this today . Sure. You can go on Google and do your research and find some more words if you like nothing wrong with that. But the point of all, this is just to open your ears to this concept so that you start getting used to it. And you can take things on with, you know, just a little bit of focus to really get the hang of this. So let me repeat those words to you once more, then we're gonna wrap this one up today. First off, we have different spelled with three syllables, but we drop that one E in the middle, just two quick syllables, different, every same thing with three syllables. We only pronounce two, not every , but every, every other day, every different strokes for different folks, different, comfortable, comfortable in my own in comfortable, comfortable, not wrong, but comfortable, little bit quicker, controlling the stress, comfortable, comfortable in my own skin, Florida, Florida , that eye in the middle, totally dropping out instead of a florid , just two quick syllables floor , Florida, and that a on the ending is AWA. You wanna remember that that's AWA is not Florida or Florida , but Florida schwa ending totally weak unstressed, quiet sound retiring in Florida vacation in Florida, Florida. So great work today. Folks, keep it up, keep on practicing this the best way to do it is repetition. And the good news is this. Isn't some brand new movement that you need to learn, right? We're just dropping a letter from a word. Everything else is the same. Just we drop a letter. So it's not some new, crazy thing that you gotta learn. Just a habit, just a habit to pick up. And this habit taking this baby step right now by adding schwas and dropping other schwas is gonna work wonders for the stress of your speech in the long run. Now, where can you find more material to take this habit further? Where can you find a video O course, which is gonna help you take this to a whole other level? Well, my friends U me this great website it's called U me and my video course is up there. And this video course addresses the stress of speech. It addresses particular sounds that Americans make, which are imperative to developing an American accent. And it addresses how we link words together to get a nice crisp flow in our speech. So if you like what you hear, you want a little bit more check out the video. Of course my friends, it's totally worth your time. All right , well, I've gotta get going for today. This has been a wonderful lesson and it's one that's really gonna help you folks. So take it seriously. Write those words down and try and use some of those phrases in your daily life. Every other day. I guarantee you you've got something that you do other day. Just tell somebody about it. Tell somebody about it. Say I do this every other day. Just go say that to somebody and then you'll be practicing your English. That's seriously it. It's not taking hours out of your day. And oh, I gotta study and I gotta drink coffee all night and there's an exam coming and oh , there's no, none of that. None of that, all that you gotta do is repeat what you hear me say to other people, take it easy, take a load off. We've done the work. This is the end of the episode, unless you're binge listening to episodes right now, which the thank you to the folks that do. I always, I always think that's cool. People binge listening to this, but unless you're binge listening right now, you know, you've had your English lesson for the day. All that you gotta do is go apply it, go apply what you learn . Just get out there and say it to someone, tell somebody, you know why I like you. You're comfortable in your own skin. It's a compliment . It's a wonderful thing to tell somebody. I think you are somebody who's comfortable in their own skin. Go tell that to someone that you appreciate, you will practice your English and that person will feel good. And then, you know what? They might ask you. What does that mean? What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin? And then you can teach them something new. And then you can say, I learned it. Listening to the accent training podcast. Here it is on, on Spotify. Check it out, give it a subscribe, hit subscribe, learn how to say things like comfortable. Every <affirmative> , you know , Florida different learn how to use words differently. Use words differently. You're not doing it wrong. Not saying that you're doing it wrong, but I'm saying you can take control your speech to speak however you like. And this is one way to do it. Well, thank you for taking advantage of this today. My fine friends. It's been a pleasure to chat with you. It's a little chilly here. My hands are chilly . So I gotta go make a coffee and warm up. Enjoy your own coffee. If you're sipping on a coffee right now, I'm holding up my cup and a salute to say, cheers, my coffee's gone cold. You see that's the issue. I guarantee somebody listening to this right now also has some cold coffee that they're drinking. And , um, well, we can share this experience together. Let me take one more sip in my cold coffee. Let me share this sip with you. Oh , Down it goes down the hatch cold coffee. Thank you for sharing that moment with me the cold coffee. And thank you for sharing your time with me listening. Have a good one.