When speaking English, we need to destress function words. Function words are little grammatical words that don’t give us the key meaning of the sentence.
We destress these words by using their weak forms, which often contain a schwa sound (/ə/). A schwa sound is a very weak vowel sound that we make with a flat tongue and very relaxed lips and jaw. Watch and listen to how to make the sound:
Weak forms list
Below is a list of some of the most common weak forms in English (but not all of them!).
Look at how to pronounce them, then practise with the audio files. Pay attention to schwa sounds!
Articles
Word: a
Sounds like: ə
Example sentence: It’s a nice day.
Word: an
Sounds like: ən
Example sentence: That’s an excellent idea.
Word: the
Sounds like: thə
Example sentence: That’s the guy.
Prepositions
Word: to
Sounds like: tə
Example sentence: Let’s go to Spain
Word: from
Sounds like: frəm
Example sentence: I’m from the UK.
Word: for
Sounds like: fə *
Example sentence: It’s for my sister.
Word: of
Sounds like: əf
Example sentence: It’s the 9th of December.
Word: at
Sounds like: ət
Example sentence: We’re at the park.
Conjunctions
Word: and
Sounds like: ənd/ən
Example sentence: Rock and roll. Fish and chips. Bubble and squeak.
Word: because
Sounds like: bəcos
Example sentence: We cancelled because of the rain.
Word: or
Sounds like: ə *
Example sentence: Tea or coffee?
Word: so
Sounds like: sə
Example sentence: So that’s why.
Word: as
Sounds like: əs
Example sentence: I didn’t finish as it was too hard.
Verbs
Below are some of the weak forms of different conjugations of “to be”, “to do”, “to have”, and auxiliary verbs. I’ve included the weak forms that are most different to the spelling of the words, so most challenging for students.
To be
Form of verb with weak form: am
Sounds like: əm
Example sentence: I am so happy!
Form of verb with weak form: are
Sounds like: ə
Example sentence: You are such a great friend!
Form of verb with weak form: was
Sounds like: wəs
Example sentence: It was a fantastic film.
Form of verb with weak form: were
Sounds like: wə *
Example sentence: We were lost.
To do
Form of verb with weak form: do
Sounds like: də
Example sentence: Do you want some more?
Form of verb with weak form: does
Sounds like: dəs
Example sentence: Where does he want to go?
To have (as auxiliary verb)
Notice that the “h” often disappears in spoken English.
Form of verb with weak form: have
Sounds like: həv/əv
Example sentence: I have done it.
Form of verb with weak form: has
Sounds like: həs/əs
Example sentence: She has finished
Form of verb with weak form: had
Sounds like: həd/əd
Example sentence: They had already eaten.
Other auxiliary verbs
Form of verb with weak form: can
Sounds like: cən
Example sentence: We can try it.
Form of verb with weak form: shall
Sounds like: shəl
Example sentence: Shall we go out?
Form of verb with weak form: will
Sounds like: wəl
Example sentence: She will go there next year.
* sounds like this in Standard Southern British English, as we drop the “r”. In other accents the “r” may be pronounced.