in phonetic translation it's the name of mid-central vowel sound you can search for the ipa [international phonetic alphabet] table to see it, it's written as ə its sound is similar to 'a' in about [əˈbaʊt], 'e' in taken [ˈteɪkən], 'i' in pencil [ˈpɛnsəl], 'o' in eloquent [ˈɛləkwənt], 'u' in supply [səˈplaɪ], 'y' in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]

anushka, "ə" not a vowel or letter of any kind in English. You're thinking of the letter e.

it's the most common vowel in english BTW

Schwa is written with this symbol: ə (written like "e" turned on its head). It is not a letter of the alphabet, but it is a symbol used to show how to pronounce something. It is an unstressed vowel, with a neutral pronounciation. From the wikipedia page {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa} here are examples of vowels in certain words that all get pronounced with the schwa sound: like the 'a' in about [əˈbaʊt] like the 'e' in taken [ˈteɪkən] like the 'i' in pencil [ˈpɛnsəl] like the 'o' in eloquent [ˈɛləkwənt] like the 'u' in supply [səˈplaɪ] like the 'y' in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]

Maidhc, I mean it's the most common vowel SOUND. e is the most common letter, consonant or vowel, yes. Plus-how does one learn Gaelic?