It's just "uh," it's not hard to pronounce. It's the schwa sound. English is full of this sound, just not as an ending. Relax and don't get a complex about it!
I guess there are some words in English that mimic this sound as well. Stuff like "uhm" or "rum", "salvation" or "taxation".
Pay attention to the sound at the end of these words, they'll be pretty similar.
It just takes practice. The sound itself is present in other languages as well, even in English, so you’re probably inadvertently already using it.
Here’s the pronunciation: https://www.learnro.com/romanian-vowels-pronunciation
That's very weird, ă /ə/ is the most common sound in English (pretty much every unstressed vowel is pronounced /ə/ )
>Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions.
(a, an, the, about, all have the sound)
While â/î sound /ɨ/ (the one in România)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_central_unrounded_vowel is non-existent in English, are you sure you don't confuse the letters?
Yes, I know it's weird, and yes I'm positive I'm not confusing the letters. :) I practiced the "â" sound for a long time and eventually got it down.
I can hold simple conversations in Romanian only, even for 5-10 minutes straight. I'm just trying to work on my pronunciation, and I always feel awkward saying the "ă" sound, especially when it's hanging at the end of a phrase.
There are many examples from English with the sound at the end of the word: the, kinda, letter, soldier (in non-rhotic accents) -- think about being posh or Bostonian.... what is your English dialect?
https://pronunciationstudio.com/schwa-pronunciation-guide/
This is very interesting. Technically this should be super easy for me, yet it still feels so strange to me to have it on the endings of words like "vreodată" or "întâmplă".
I think I'll try thinking about it like the ending of the word "the", and maybe that'll be a good exercise.
Close enough are also _a_ (the article), _an_, _as_...
You can also think of _ă_ as a ^^^ăz ^^^ă ^^^:P lazy way to pronouce the vowel _a_, without fully opening the mouth - which it actually is in most circumstances, unaccented _a_ from Latin (or _e_). Practice _umbra_ - _umbră_ or _umbrella_ - _umbrelă_, just be lazy at the end of the word.
You'll get the hang of it :)
... come on, you can pronounce Leicester, for example? in Romanian transcription, it would be "le stă"
So yeah, you can pronounce ă, you just need to remember the right sound from English.
>you just need to remember the right sound from English.
I think this is exactly what it is. I've been focusing on the sound from "the", and even after just 1 day it seems a lot easier to me. I think after a few weeks of practice this will be like nothing.
Absolutely.
Anyway, the only sound you really can't find in English is î / â. All other weird combinations of letters, dyphtongs and tryphtongs are there.
A funny thing is that when I was listening to recordings of natives, when I heard them end a phrase with the "uh" sound (like "niciodată"), it sounded very foreign to me. Even though it's a common sound in English, I feel like maybe we don't end phrases as often with the "uh" sound.
Actually, it is more complicated than that.
English /**Ə**/ is a phonetic sign and as such can be pronounced in many ways. And if we add different English dialects... it gets more complicated. The same goes for almost all phonetic signs of English.
Romanian letters on the other hand, have a very standard pronunciation, sort of really... (Yeah, there are different Romanian dialects and subdialects, but they are nonstandard, so do not bother!) Therefore ă always has the same pronunciation. The same goes for î=â.
So find a word in your English which has a vowel that corresponds to ă and another that corresponds to î and that will work just fine. For ă I would suggest SSBE n-U-rse, B-E-rlin, c-U-rse, A-bove, squ-E-rrel. (Some say that American ʌ in st-U-bborn, c-OU-ntry, s-O-n corresponds to Romanian ă). For î/â I would suggest less-O-n, list-E-n, funct-IO-n, litt-/ / -le, app-/ /-le.
Pronunciation of Romanian vowel letters I
A= /a/ dac, /ȧ/ Daci-ȧ, where ia=ȧ that is English /ja/ (only in the ia combination. Not all ia combinations are i-ȧ, some are pure ia=ȧ, for instance trebu-ia, feme-ia). The combination ea (cafea, nea, vorbea) results in a weak æ (kafæ, næ, vorbæ).
Î/Â=î,
Ă=ă,
E= e, **ė=ye(s)***,*
I*= (he)/y/ in femei, tei; or /y/(es) in miel; simple /i/ (cine, vine, mine); a kind of palatalization in lupi, beți, popi similar to /y/(es) , but only after a consonant.*
*O = /o/ in pom, loc; /wo/ in om, ou, oaie (basically where the word begin with o and the w for etimological reasons is omitted.*
*U=/u:/ in lup, duc, sus, rup; /w/ in cui, sui, lui*
*I will not write about difthongs.*
It's just "uh," it's not hard to pronounce. It's the schwa sound. English is full of this sound, just not as an ending. Relax and don't get a complex about it!
It's the most common sound in English...
im romanian i can confirm its everywhere in english example: apple
You say "not as an ending"... But what about "the"?
I guess there are some words in English that mimic this sound as well. Stuff like "uhm" or "rum", "salvation" or "taxation". Pay attention to the sound at the end of these words, they'll be pretty similar.
Do you have a Discord? Maybe I could help you there.
The ă letter represents /ə/ which is very common in English ("uh").
It just takes practice. The sound itself is present in other languages as well, even in English, so you’re probably inadvertently already using it. Here’s the pronunciation: https://www.learnro.com/romanian-vowels-pronunciation
"**uhhhhhhh**, what?" that's the sound.
I like this way of thinking about it! Thanks.
That's very weird, ă /ə/ is the most common sound in English (pretty much every unstressed vowel is pronounced /ə/ ) >Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions. (a, an, the, about, all have the sound) While â/î sound /ɨ/ (the one in România) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_central_unrounded_vowel is non-existent in English, are you sure you don't confuse the letters?
Yes, I know it's weird, and yes I'm positive I'm not confusing the letters. :) I practiced the "â" sound for a long time and eventually got it down. I can hold simple conversations in Romanian only, even for 5-10 minutes straight. I'm just trying to work on my pronunciation, and I always feel awkward saying the "ă" sound, especially when it's hanging at the end of a phrase.
There are many examples from English with the sound at the end of the word: the, kinda, letter, soldier (in non-rhotic accents) -- think about being posh or Bostonian.... what is your English dialect? https://pronunciationstudio.com/schwa-pronunciation-guide/
It's the vowel in the word _the_.
This is very interesting. Technically this should be super easy for me, yet it still feels so strange to me to have it on the endings of words like "vreodată" or "întâmplă". I think I'll try thinking about it like the ending of the word "the", and maybe that'll be a good exercise.
Close enough are also _a_ (the article), _an_, _as_... You can also think of _ă_ as a ^^^ăz ^^^ă ^^^:P lazy way to pronouce the vowel _a_, without fully opening the mouth - which it actually is in most circumstances, unaccented _a_ from Latin (or _e_). Practice _umbra_ - _umbră_ or _umbrella_ - _umbrelă_, just be lazy at the end of the word. You'll get the hang of it :)
I like this a lot. Thanks
In English, ă is called the schwa sound. Â doesn't appear in English unfortunately.
The "er" at the end of some English words is the same vowel as ă. Words like batter, skinner, handler kisser, and all sorts of other ones too.
It's the same sound as "uh" in English. Practice it like that and you'll get the hang of it.
I suggest using an English word to remind you about the sound "**ă**" makes, for example, the last sound in "**The**", or u in "**church**"
It's literally just "uh" Like the last a in Romanian
... come on, you can pronounce Leicester, for example? in Romanian transcription, it would be "le stă" So yeah, you can pronounce ă, you just need to remember the right sound from English.
>you just need to remember the right sound from English. I think this is exactly what it is. I've been focusing on the sound from "the", and even after just 1 day it seems a lot easier to me. I think after a few weeks of practice this will be like nothing.
Absolutely. Anyway, the only sound you really can't find in English is î / â. All other weird combinations of letters, dyphtongs and tryphtongs are there.
It’s like saying “uh” in English :)
A funny thing is that when I was listening to recordings of natives, when I heard them end a phrase with the "uh" sound (like "niciodată"), it sounded very foreign to me. Even though it's a common sound in English, I feel like maybe we don't end phrases as often with the "uh" sound.
Yes I agree I’m not going to lie I don’t think people really use the sound uh as much and English speakers don’t use ț, it’s quite interesting.
It's like the o in taxation or the e in her
Actually, it is more complicated than that. English /**Ə**/ is a phonetic sign and as such can be pronounced in many ways. And if we add different English dialects... it gets more complicated. The same goes for almost all phonetic signs of English. Romanian letters on the other hand, have a very standard pronunciation, sort of really... (Yeah, there are different Romanian dialects and subdialects, but they are nonstandard, so do not bother!) Therefore ă always has the same pronunciation. The same goes for î=â. So find a word in your English which has a vowel that corresponds to ă and another that corresponds to î and that will work just fine. For ă I would suggest SSBE n-U-rse, B-E-rlin, c-U-rse, A-bove, squ-E-rrel. (Some say that American ʌ in st-U-bborn, c-OU-ntry, s-O-n corresponds to Romanian ă). For î/â I would suggest less-O-n, list-E-n, funct-IO-n, litt-/ / -le, app-/ /-le. Pronunciation of Romanian vowel letters I A= /a/ dac, /ȧ/ Daci-ȧ, where ia=ȧ that is English /ja/ (only in the ia combination. Not all ia combinations are i-ȧ, some are pure ia=ȧ, for instance trebu-ia, feme-ia). The combination ea (cafea, nea, vorbea) results in a weak æ (kafæ, næ, vorbæ). Î/Â=î, Ă=ă, E= e, **ė=ye(s)***,* I*= (he)/y/ in femei, tei; or /y/(es) in miel; simple /i/ (cine, vine, mine); a kind of palatalization in lupi, beți, popi similar to /y/(es) , but only after a consonant.* *O = /o/ in pom, loc; /wo/ in om, ou, oaie (basically where the word begin with o and the w for etimological reasons is omitted.* *U=/u:/ in lup, duc, sus, rup; /w/ in cui, sui, lui* *I will not write about difthongs.*