LumiraWhat is a schwa?
The schwa is the lazy, unstressed vowel sound at the heart of many English words. It is the most common vowel sound in the language and the one that makes spelling feel unpredictable, so hearing it deliberately is worth practising.
The schwa sound at the start of a word — word list
Every word below appears in the decodable book on this page, so a reader who practises the list will meet the same words again in context.
- about
- above
- again
- alarm
- alive
- along
- aside
- awake
Free decodable book: Decodable Schwa: Word Starts
This is an original Lumira decodable reader, written so that a child can sound out nearly every word using patterns they have already been taught. The full text is below — read it here, or open it in the app to read it together with the words highlighting as you speak.
Mia and Leo talk about the cat. They talk about it again.
A cat is above the box. Mia and Leo saw it above.
Leo is awake. Mia is awake too. Mia and Leo are awake.
An alarm went off again. Mia and Leo got up.
Mia and Leo walk along. They walk along the path.
About above alive again alarm along awake aside. Mia and Leo said them all.
How to teach it
- Say the sound on its own first, several times, before showing any letters.
- Show the spelling and name it explicitly — tell the reader what it says rather than asking them to work it out.
- Blend two or three words from the list together, out loud, slowly.
- Read the decodable book above, where the pattern repeats in real sentences.
- Come back to it two or three days later. Cumulative review is what makes it stick.
Lessons that practise this pattern
Schwa at the start (a-)
Notice the lazy schwa /ə/ sound in unstressed first syllables spelled a-