English: How to Pronounce SH [ʃ] and ZH [ʒ] consonants: American Accent

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. To make this sound, the teeth

come together, the corners of the lips come in, and the rest of the lips flare. Sh, dj.

The tongue raises a bit in the middle. It doesn't touch the roof of the mouth, but it

does press against the inside corner of the top teeth. Sh, dj. The front part of the tongue

comes down, but it's far enough back that it's not touching anything in the mouth. Sh,

dj. Here we see the sh/dj sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left.

The corners of the lips do come in, but rather than rounding, the lips come away from the

face, so more of the teeth are exposed. Here, parts of the mouth are drawn in. The soft

palate is raised for these sounds. The tongue reaches up towards the roof of the mouth without

touching. The tip of the tongue comes back down behind the teeth, which are closed, but

it's a little too far back to be touching. Sample words: ship/measure, dish/decision,

wash/mirage. Sample sentence: She made the decision to get a beige bed spread with chic

striped sheets. Now you will see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight

on and from an angle, so you can really see how the mouth when making this sound. She, lips

take the SH position, corners somewhat in but lips away from the face. Teeth closed.

Made, lips together for the M. Tongue through the teeth for the TH, the decision. Tongue

up and teeth closed for the D sound. Decision, here's the dj mouth position. To get, T pronounced

as a D here. Tongue up to make that D. A beige, lips together for the B, and it ends in the

voiced dj sound. Teeth together, and note the lip position. Lips together for the B,

bedspread. Tongue for the D, teeth together for the S, lips together for the P. Spread.

Tongue up again for the D. With, lips form the W sound, tongue through the teeth for

the TH. Chic, SH sound. Teeth together and the SH lip position. Striped, teeth together

for the S, lips take the R position. Lips together for the P. And sheets, with the SH

sound, teeth together, lips away from the face. And now from an angle. She, teeth together

and lips out away from the face, sh. Made, lips together for the M. The, tongue through the

teeth for the TH and to the roof of the mouth for the D sound. Teeth together for the S,

decision. Here is the voiced dj mouth position. To get a, all unstressed and quick words.

Beige, lips together for the B, and here again the voiced dj mouth position. Lips together

for the B in bedspread, 'eh' as in 'bed' vowel, tongue up for the D. Teeth together for the

S and lips together for the P. Spread, tongue up for the D. With, lips form the tight W.

Chic, the sh, SH mouth position. Striped, teeth together and tongue forward to make

the S. There's the R position in the lips. Lips together for the P. Sheets, the SH mouth

position, 'ee' as in 'she' vowel, corners of the lips pull back, and the teeth together

for the TS sound. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.