Pronuncian Lessons
Consonant Fricative: sh sound /ʃ/
Listen to the sh sound
How to pronounce the sh sound
The sh sound is unvoiced, and is the counterpart to the voiced zh sound.
To create the sh sound, the front of the blade of the tongue is placed near the tooth ridge. The sides of the blade of the tongue may be against the side teeth, and air forced through the vocal tract during creation of the sound travels along the center of the tongue.
The lips are kept slightly tense, and may protrude somewhat during the production of the sound.
This sound is considered a continuous consonant, meaning that it should be capable of being held for a few seconds with even and smooth pronunciation for the entire duration. Because the sound is a fricative, the majority of the sound comes from the friction of the air traveling through a small opening in the vocal tract.
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sh sound illustration |
Common sh sound spellings
NOTE: ch spelling
The ch sound, not the sh sound, is the most common pronunciation for the ch spelling.
The sh sound in suffixes
NOTE: -sion suffix
The -sion suffix includes an sh sound when it is preceded by a consonant sound (other than an r sound). Otherwise the word is likely pronounced with a zh sound (see zh sound spelling and pronunciation lesson for comparative zh sound examples).
The sh sound before suffixes
The -ure suffix and -ious suffixes do not contain an sh sound within them. However, when these suffixes are preceded by the letters s, c, or t, those letters may be pronounced as an sh sound.
NOTE: s+ure spelling
In the s+ure spelling, the letter s is usually only pronounced as the sh sound when it is preceded by a consonant sound or is spelled with two adjacent letter s's. If the s+ure spelling is preceded by a vowel sound, the word is likely pronounced with a zh sound (see zh sound spelling and pronunciation lesson for comparative zh sound examples).
Non-phonetic sh sound words
The sh sound is underlined in the following words:
Other sounds to compare with the sh sound