Schwa
German, noun/ʃvaː/
Schwa is a German neuter noun meaning “schwa (mid central vowel sound)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “zentraler, mittelhoher Kurzvokal, der in der Lautschrift mit [ə] wiedergegeben wird”.
What does Schwa mean in English?
noun
- 1
neuterschwa (mid central vowel sound)
- 2
neutershva (one of the nikud (Hebrew vowel signs))
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. zentraler, mittelhoher Kurzvokal, der in der Lautschrift mit [ə] wiedergegeben wird 2. Vokalisierungszeichen, das Murmelvokal (Bedeutung [1]) oder Vokallosigkeit anzeigt
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of Schwa
- Schwas genitive
- Schva alternative
- Sch'va alternative
- Sch'wa alternative
- Shva alternative
- Shwa alternative
- Sh'va alternative
- Sh'wa alternative
- [1, 2] ə symbol
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce Schwa?
- /ʃvaː/
- [ʃʋaː]
- [ʃvaː]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to Schwa
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is Schwa in German?
Schwa appears about once in every 3 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).