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Hello. This is AJ, and welcome to our next unit, more vowel sounds. In this unit, we’ve got three sounds that all have vibration. Remember, again, that lesson about vibration, chest, throat, and nose. Well, we’ll be working with especially throat vibration again in this unit.

Let’s start with our first sound with shwa. Then, we’ll learn the A-W or aw sound. Then, we’ll do the short-e sound, eh. First the shwa sound. This is a very, very common sound in English. We use it a lot, so you’ve got to learn how to do it correctly. Very important sound. Okay.

The shwa is a very relaxed sound. It sounds like this, uh, uh, uh, uh. Let me tell you how to make this sound. First of all, you mouth is wide, it’s wide open. It’s a very open sound. You can just open your mouth completely as you do it. Uh, uh. See? My face is quite relaxed when I’m doing this.

This is a relaxed sound. Uh, uh. Basically you’re opening you mouth. You’re opening everything, and then you’re vibrating your throat. It’s the vibration that creates this sound in the throat. Uh. Without the vibration, it’s just an H sound. It’s kind of like a vibrating H sound.

Uh, uh, uh.

Okay, so again, wide open relaxed mouth, and then vibrate in your throat. Uh, uh, uh. Now, it’s kind of a quiet sound. You can make it loud, uh, but in normal speech it’s often quite a short sound. We’ll just say it very quickly. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.

You’re going to hear this sound in English constantly. It’s in so many words. Especially in causal conversation, fast conversation we change a lot of vowel sounds to the shwa, and just say uh, uh, uh, uh. Got to learn this sound. Okay. Let’s practice it.

One more tip actually before we practice. Sometimes I like to tell people there’s a little trick if you’re having trouble, if this is difficult for you. Open your mouth and relax everything. Then, take your fist like this, and imagine you’re punching yourself in the stomach. Uh. Right.

Suddenly, air comes out. Uh. You vibrate your throat like someone just punched you. Uh. That’s what I want you to imagine for making this sound. You don’t have to hurt yourself. It’s just a mental trick.

Let’s practice some words with this sound. Okay? Again, it’s the first sound. It’s spelled with an A, but that first sound is a shwa sound.

Uh. Again, again. Uh-gain. Again.

You can hear this word, how short it is. Right? I told you that the shwa sound is often very quick.

In this word it’s a good example. Again. In normal speech we don’t say uh-gain. We say the uh sound. It’s very quick.

Again, again, again, again, again.

Here’s another one.

A lot, a lot, a lot. I have a lot of money.Hopefully you do. A lot, a lot.

Celebrate. It’s in the middle. Cel-uh-brate. Uh, uh, uh. Cel-uh-brate, celebrate, celebrate.

Hear how quick it is? Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.

Occur. Occur means to happen. Occur, occur. It’s the beginning. Occur. Uh-cur. Occur, occur.

Again, it’s quite quick. Occur, occur. Uh-cur.

Support. That first vowel sound, uh. Suh, suh. Support, support, support.

Love. Uh. Love, love, love.

Must, must, must.

The. T-H-E. That word can be pronounced 2 ways. Some people say thee, but it can also be pronounced the with a shwa sound.

Uh. The, the, the, the, the. Uh, uh, uh. The.

Alone, alone.

Focus. It’s the second vowel sound. Uh, focus. Us, us. Focus, focus, focus.

Hear how quick it is again. Focus, focus, focus.

All right. Good. Let’s move to our next sound. You can call this an A-W sound. It’s aw. Aw, aw, like awful. Awful. Almost. Aw, aw. This is also a throat vibration sound. The difference is your mouth now is going to be more narrow.

With the shwa, it was wide. Uh, uh. Everything open. With aw, you’re going to push your lips together more tight. Right? Aw, aw, aw. Still an open mouth, but narrow. Push together. Aw. It’s not the fish-face. Right? Your lips are not close. They’re open. It’s very open still, but pushed together narrow. Aw, aw. You open, narrow face and then vibrate your throat. Aw, aw, aw.

Awful means terrible. It’s the first sound. Aw-ful, aw-ful, aw-ful.

Exaggerate. Push your face together tight, and open your mouth very wide.

Awful, awful.

Almost, almost, almost, almost, almost.

Crawl. It’s the sound in the middle. Crawling, like a baby. Crawl, crawl, crawl.

Author is a writer. Author. Aw-thor, aw-thor. Author. Aw, aw. Author.

Walk, walk, walk.

Talk, talk, talk.

Tall. Very tall. Not short. Tall, tall.

Also, also, also.

Very good. You got it.

Let’s go to our final sound for this unit, the sort-e. It sounds like this. Eh. Like get, let. Eh, eh, eh. Ho do we get this? First of all, with the eh sound, your tongue is active. The front of your tongue is low. Eh. Don’t raise it. Ehhh. No, no, no. Eh. The front of your tongue kind of goes down behind your bottom teeth.

Eh, eh, eh, eh.

Drop the front of you tongue. You lower lip becomes tight and a little bit wide. Eh, eh. It’s a trick. Again, you can exaggerate this.

Eh, eh, eh.

You can even push your lower lip out a little if you want, but it needs to be kind of tight. Eh, eh.

The front of the tongue drops, the back of the tongue might come up. It’s okay. Then, tight here on the lower lip, and then again that same throat vibration.

Eh, eh, eh. See, I’m pushing my lower lip out?

Eh. Get, get, get, get.

Let, let let.

Healthy. The first sound. Heh, heh. Health, healthy, healthy, healthy. Heh. Healthy, healthy, healthy.

Wealth, means lots of money. Wealth, wealth.

Next, next. Eh. Next.

Best, best, best.

Energy. Eh. Energy, energy. That first sound. Energy, energy.

Okay. Do your best in the training during your five days following this unit. As I said, sometimes the vowel sounds — The changes are quite small, so you may need some time to listen very carefully to practice again and again at a slow speed until you start to feel these small differences in the sounds. Just be patient, relax. Let yourself gradually improve. Train everyday. Follow the five day Effortless English Pronunciation process.

See you in the training audio.