How to Pronounce S and Sh /ʃ/ | Learn English Pronunciation Course

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 an ‘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.

Thank you so much for watching, guys.

If you've liked it, show me your support, click ‘like’, subscribe to the channel,

put your comments below, and share this video.

See you.