/ə/ as in "bus"

/ə/ is a mid central vowel of General American English, as in "bus" and "cup." To produce it, tongue rests in the center of the mouth, jaw relaxed. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this vowel.

How to make /ə/

mid central vowel — tongue rests in the center of the mouth, jaw relaxed.

Also written as

/ʌ/

used for the stressed STRUT vowel (cup, bus) in most dictionaries; Phoneme merges it with schwa

Sounds that learners confuse with /ə/

• /ə/ vs /æ/ — /æ/ as in "bag"
• /ə/ vs /ɑ/ — /ɑ/ as in "dog"
• /ə/ vs /ʊ/ — /ʊ/ as in "book"

Minimal pairs for /ə/

/ə/ vs /æ/

/ə/	/æ/
cup	cap
luck	lack
cut	cat
hut	hat
ton	tan
bug	bag
pun	pan
but	bat

/ə/ vs /ɑ/

/ə/	/ɑ/
cup	cop
luck	lock
cut	caught
lug	log
hug	hog
gun	gone
putt	pot
bug	bog

/ə/ vs /ʊ/

/ə/	/ʊ/
buck	book
putt	put
luck	look
tuck	took
cud	could