Memorable Schwa Sets:

#6 'The Husband's Moment of Action'

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.

-tion / -sion station, action, nation, position, emotion, condition, direction, passion, session, aggression, impression, discussion

-ment payment, moment, argument, statement, movement, treatment, development, government, establishment

-ent / -ant patient, confident, student, significant, important, tenant, assistant, brilliant, defiant

-ond / -and / -end second, diamond, husband, thousand, legend

lazy schwa sentences:

It wasn’t a brilliant first day – the second the patient saw me, she knew I was a student.

They don’t take cash payments for diamonds of significant value.

The year two thousand and seven was an important moment for music.

When I got to the junction, I asked the assistant for directions to the station

exception words:

-ment comment, cement

-ond / -and demand, command, understand, beyond, respond, correspond

-end pretend, attend. ‘Dividend’ could be a fully formed DRESS vowel, or have a schwa (both are Standard options).

Also of note (not in this version of the audio):

-ent prevent, relent

-tion bastion, centurion, criterion*

* these 'tion' words are not really exceptions, because the letter 'o' represents a schwa. This means they belong to Schwa Set #5: 'Open Season'. They are here simply because, although they look like other '-tion' words, they sound very different: in these, the 'i' represents a separate FLEECE vowel.

But for the vast majority of '-tion' words, the 'io' act together to symbolise simply a schwa.

exception sentences:

He commented that this place will be cemented in history as a bastion* of free speech.

We can no longer pretend that their demands are beyond reach.

* ‘Bastion’ DOES have a schwa (represented by o ). It’s listed as an exception because, unlike other ‘tion’ words, the letter i is pronounced as a separate vowel sound. See notes in 'exception words' above.