English Sounds - SH [ʃ] and ZH [ʒ] Consonants - How to make the SH and ZH Consonants

In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to learn how to pronounce the

SH and DJ consonant sounds.

These two sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position.

SH is unvoiced, meaning only air passes through the mouth.

And DJ is voiced, meaning you make sound with your vocal cords.

DJ. To make these sounds, the teeth come together, the corners of the lips come in, and the lips flare.

The tongue lifts so the front, middle part of the tongue is very close to the roof of the mouth,

but not touching it.

The tongue tip points forward but doesn’t touch anything.

Let's look at these sounds up close and in slow motion.

The lips flare and the teeth come together.

In the word 'shop', the SH is at the beginning of the word.

In the word ‘wish’, it’s at the end.

In the word ‘Asia’, the ZH sound is in the middle.

The mouth position is always the same.

Teeth together, lips flare.

The SH and ZH consonants.

Shop

Wish

Asia

Example words. Repeat with me.

Should. SH. Should.

Special. SH. Special.

Wash. SH. Wash.

Measure. ZH. Measure.

Garage. ZH. Garage.

Usual. ZH. Usual.

This video is one of 36 in a new series, The Sounds of American English.

Videos in this set will be released here on YouTube twice a month,

first and third Thursdays, in 2016 and 2017.

But the whole set can be all yours right now.

The real value of these videos is watching them as a set, as a whole

to give your mind the time to take it all in and get the bigger picture.

Most of the materials you'll find elsewhere just teach the sounds on their own in isolation.

It's a mistake to learn them this way. We learn the sounds to speak words and sentences, not just sounds.

Move closer to fluency in spoken English. Buy the video set today!

Visit rachelsenglish.com/sounds

Available as a DVD or digital download.