Pronuncian Lessons
Introduction to American English Consonant Fricative Sounds
What are fricatives?
Fricatives occur when air travels through a small, constricted opening in the vocal tract. They are continuous consonants, meaning that their pronunciations occurs smoothly and evenly. The key aspect for ESL/EFL students to remember is that, during fricative sounds, the air travels evenly during the entire sound. To test the ability to create even fricative shounds, students should practice holding each sound for a few seconds. If the air is fully blocked, even for a moment, the sound will mimic a stop (see Introduction to Stops lesson) or an affricate.
English has nine fricative sounds; four are voiced (meaning that the vocal cords vibrate during the sound) and five are unvoiced (meaning that the vocal cords do not vibrate during the sound). Voiced and unvoiced sounds often occur in pairs, with the only major difference between the pairs being the use of the vocal cords or not.
The table below includes a key word to demonstrate each fricative sound and an audio example of that word. The fricative sound of each word is underlined. The sounds are ordered from the most forward in the vocal tract toward the rear. The voiced sound of each pair is listed first (except the h sound, which has no voiced counterpart).