Memorable Schwa Sets:

#10 'The Random Column Museum'

This is a multi-part series on 'Selectively Lazy English'. If you're new, you can jump back to the first set of resources ... or start at the very beginning with my intro article.

Your resources for this lesson are just below ...

lazy schwa words

TIP: It's a good idea listen to the audio without looking at the written examples – at least when you start.

We pronounce the highlighted spelling patterns with a lazy schwa vowel in all of the word examples below, and in all contexts – even if a speaker wants to heavily emphasise the word.

-um album, forum, optimum, spectrum, stadium, plutonium, museum

-umn / -emn column, Autumn, solemn

-om kingdom, random, wisdom

lazy schwa sentences:

If the stadium’s not open, I could meet you near the big columns outside the Forum.

The museum guide said plutonium emits radiation on the high-energy end of the spectrum.

exception words:

As you can see, I've only found one exception – the rather ugly word 'condom':

-um / -umn / -emn [none found]

-om condom