Practice Your English Pronunciation /s/ vs sh /ʃ/ Sounds | Course #15

Hello, guys.

My name is F@nny.

Welcome to this English pronunciation video.

In this video,

we are going to focus

on two very important consonant sounds.

The sounds /s/ and /ʃ/.

Now, I know they may sound similar to you.

But they are actually quite different

and they are very important in English.

So I want you to hear the difference

and to be able to pronounce them correctly.

Let's start with two example words.

The first word would be the word ‘sea’.

Can you hear the ‘s’ sound?

‘sea’

The second word is ‘she’.

Now, the sound is very different.

It's a ‘sh’ sound,

‘she’.

So ‘see’, ‘she’.

Can you hear the difference?

Well if you can't hear the difference,

I promise you by the end of this video,

with practice,

you will be able to hear it

and you will pronounce them correctly.

So keep watching.

We are going to learn together

how to make this /s/ and /ʃ/ sounds in English.

Of course it's very important

for you to know the I.P.A spelling - it helps.

Also, you can watch how I move my mouth.

And always repeat after me.

You can do this, guys.

Let's do it together.

Let's practice making the 's' sound in English.

So it's unvoiced.

No vibration in your throat.

You don't use your voice.

You're simply going to release some air.

Your mouth should not move.

Your tongue is going to go against your bottom teeth, okay.

And your teeth are actually going to touch each other.

And you're going to release some air.

So.. /s/

Please repeat after me. Watch my mouth.

/s/

/s/

/s/

Let's practice with the word ‘see’.

‘see’

‘see’

‘see’

Good.

Let's now practice making the /ʃ/ sound in English.

It's also unvoiced.

And this time,

your mouth is going to be rounded.

And it's going to come out.

/ʃ/

Your tongue is going to be down, okay.

And your teeth are definitely not going to touch each other,

okay. And you're going to release some air.

/ʃ/

Please repeat after me.

/ʃ/

/ʃ/

/ʃ/

Let's practice with the word ‘she’.

Please repeat after me.

‘she’

‘she’

‘she’

Good.

Let's now practice with minimal pairs.

These words that sound very very much alike

but the sounds are actually different.

They are very useful

if you really want to hear the difference

between the two sounds.

First, the sounds themselves.

And I want you to watch my mouth,

how it moves,

and to repeat after me.

First the /s/ sound.

/s/

/s/

/s/

Then the /ʃ/ sound.

Please repeat after me.

/ʃ/

/ʃ/

/ʃ/

Let's now do both.

Repeat after me.

/s/

/ʃ/

/s/

/ʃ/

/s/

/ʃ/

And let's now practice with our two words.

Please repeat after me.

‘see’

‘she’

‘see’

‘she’

‘see’

‘she’

Very good, guys.

Okay, guys.

Time to go through minimal pairs together.

Please watch me, how I move my mouth,

and repeat after me.

Let's get started.

crass

crash

crust

crushed

fist

fished

gas

gash

gust

gushed

mass

mash

mess

mesh

moss

mosh

plus

plush

puss

push

rust

rushed

sack

shack

sag

shag

said

shed

sail

shale

sake

shake

sail

shale

same

shame

sank

shank

sass

sash

save

shave

saw

shore

seen

sheen

seal

she’ll

seat

sheet

seed

she’d

scene

sheen

seep

sheep

seer

sheer

seize

she’s

sell

shell

sew

show

sift

shift

sigh

shy

sign

shine

sill

shill

sin

shin

single

shingle

sip

ship

so

show

sock

shock

sod

shod

sofa

chauffeur

sop

shop

sort

short

sucks

shucks

sure

shoe

sun

shun

Great, guys.

Okay, guys.

Let's now practice with sentences

containing the consonant sounds.

The first sentence:

‘Sue showed her new shoes.’

Please repeat after.

‘Sue showed her new shoes.’

The second sentence is:

‘I've seen the sheen sheet on the seat.’

Please repeat after me.

‘I've seen the sheen sheet on the seat.’

Good.

And finally:

‘She'd said the seed is in the shed.’

Please repeat after me.

‘She'd said the seed is in the shed.’

Good job.

Moving on.

Let's now move on to listening practice.

I'm now going to show you two words.

I will say one of the two words,

and I want you to listen very carefully

and to tell me if this word is, ‘a)’ or ‘b)’

Let's get started.

Let's have a look at our first two words, guys.

Now which one do I say ‘a’, or ‘b’?

Listen very carefully.

‘sort’

One more time.

‘sort’

Is it ‘a’, or is it ‘b’?

It's ‘a’, ‘sort’.

‘b’ is ‘short’.

Now what about this one?

‘shoe’

‘shoe’

Is it ‘a’, or ‘b’?

It’s ‘b’, ‘shoe’.

‘a’ is ‘sue’.

Listen to me.

‘same’

‘same’

It's ‘a’, ‘same’.

‘b’ is ‘shame’.

‘crash’

‘crash’

It's ‘b’, ‘crash’.

‘a’ is ‘crass’.

Listen to me, guys.

‘shale’

‘shale’

What do you think?

It's ‘b’ of course, ‘shale’.

‘a’ is ‘sail’.

Now, which one do I say?

‘seen’

‘seen’

‘a’ of course, ‘seen’.

‘b’ is ‘sheen’.

‘sip’

‘sip’

It’s ‘a’, ‘sip’.

‘b’ is ‘ship’.

Now listen to this one.

‘shake’

‘shake’

It's ‘b’, ‘shake’.

‘a’ is ‘sake’.

‘seize’

‘seize’

It's ‘a’, ‘seize’.

‘b’ is ‘she's’.

And the last ones.

Listen to me.

‘shy’

‘shy’

Is it ‘a’ or is it ‘b’?

It's ‘b’, ‘shy’.

‘a’ is ‘sigh’.

Great, guys.

Thank you so much for watching.

You now understand

these consonant sounds /s/ and /ʃ/ in English.

Keep practicing.

Of course you need a lot of speaking

and listening practice

to master these sounds.

But you can do it!

You also need to train your ear

to hear the difference between these sounds, okay.

Also make sure you watch my other pronunciation videos

if you want to improve your English skills even further.

See you next time.