How to pronounce the ZH sound /ʒ/
/ʒ/ is a voiced consonant made at just behind the ridge (postalveolar). Make a long SH, lips forward, tongue broad and pulled back. Turn the voice on without moving anything — the hush becomes a buzz.
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How to make it
- 1Make a long SH, lips forward, tongue broad and pulled back.
- 2Turn the voice on without moving anything — the hush becomes a buzz.
- 3Keep it soft; this is the quietest of the English fricatives.
- 4It almost never starts an English word, so practise it in the middle: 'measure', 'vision'.
- Lips
- Forward and slightly rounded.
- Tongue
- Broad blade raised just behind the ridge, as for SH.
- Jaw
- Nearly closed.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
The usual measure of his vision was pleasure, not treasure.
She parked the beige car in the garage.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Urdu has this sound in Persian loanwords; in Hindi it usually becomes /dʒ/ or /z/, so 'measure' can sound like 'mejar'.
- Bengali
Bengali has no zh, so /dʒ/ takes over and 'vision' can become 'vijon'.
- Tamil
Tamil has no zh of this kind, so /s/ or /dʒ/ substitutes in loanwords.
- Mandarin
Mandarin's closest sound is a retroflex r-like buzz, so 'usual' can pick up an r colour.
- Cantonese
Cantonese has no zh, so /dʒ/ or /s/ replaces it and 'garage' shifts to a hard ending.
- Japanese
Japanese has a j-sound that alternates between /dʒ/ and /ʒ/, so the affricate version usually wins and 'measure' gains a d at the front.
- Korean
Korean has no zh, so /dʒ/ substitutes and 'vision' starts its second syllable with a stop.
- Thai
Thai has no zh, so /tɕʰ/ or /s/ stands in.
- Spanish
Most Spanish varieties have no zh; Argentine Spanish does, which is why it is easier for speakers from the Río de la Plata.
- German
German has this sound only in French loanwords, so it often hardens to /ʃ/ and 'beige' ends like 'baish'.
- Russian
Russian has a hard zh, so the sound exists, but it is further back than English and does not soften before front vowels.
- Arabic
Levantine and North African Arabic have this exact sound for the letter jim, so it is already available; Gulf and Egyptian varieties use /dʒ/ or /g/.
Straight answers
Is /ʒ/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. Every English vowel is voiced too, so the buzz never stops between this sound and the vowel next to it.
What words start with the ZH sound?
Common ones include genre. In the middle of a word you get measure, vision, usual, and at the end beige, garage, rouge. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /ʒ/ spelled in English?
It is written "si", "s", "ge", "g", "z", "j". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /ʒ/ hard?
Urdu has this sound in Persian loanwords; in Hindi it usually becomes /dʒ/ or /z/, so 'measure' can sound like 'mejar'.
Record the ZH sound and see if it landed
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