They're told apart by the same way that /
These sounds exist in many parts of Latin America). /ʃ/ is the sound we make when we want to ask for silence (Shhhh…!) and /ʒ/ is its voiced counterpart.
So, there is the key difference between [dʒ] “dg” (as in “judge”) and [ʒ] “zh” (as in “measure”). [ʒ] “zh” – I can hold the sound for a long time. [dʒ] “dg” – I canNOT hold the sound at all.
These are both voiced, alveo-palatal consonants. However, /ʒ/ is a fricative and /dʒ/ is an affricate. For /dʒ/, the air in your mouth should stop before being released. Practice hearing the difference between /ʒ/ and /dʒ/ by taking the quiz below.
These two are pronounced with exactly the same mouth position but /dʒ/ uses the voice, whereas /tʃ/ is just a sudden puff of air similar to a sneeze.
Post-alveolar sounds are produced with the tip of the tongue and the roof of the mouth (specifically, the area in between the alveolar ridge and the soft palate). (e.g. /ʃ/, /ʒ/).
You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing. The biggest difference between these two sounds is that /ɒ/ is a short vowel and /ɔ:/ is a long one. The mouth position is also slightly different, with the mouth in /ɔ:/ being slightly tighter and more rounded.
/ʤ/ is released with a sudden release of air, similar to /tʃ/ but with use of the voice. The phonemic symbol /j/ looks as if it should be pronounced like the first letter of jam, but is in fact the first sound in yellow. The sound /j/ is similar to the vowel sound /i:/, and in fact is often called a “semi-vowel”.
The consonant /dʒ/ is a voiced, alveo-palatal, affricate consonant. Press the middle of your tongue between your alveolar ridge and your soft palate. Quickly move your tongue downward while forcefully pushing air out. The air in your mouth should stop before it is released.
The ʤ sound is a sound from the 'Consonants Pairs' group and it is called the 'Voiced palato-alveolar affricate'.
The /aʊ/ symbol finishes with the same /ʊ/ symbol but starts with the /a/ one, meaning the sound starts with the mouth much tighter and further open than with the /ə/ sound of /əʊ/.
These are both low, tense vowels. However, /ɔ/ is a back, rounded vowel and /ɑ/ is a central, unrounded vowel. When you pronounce /ɔ/, your lips should form a circle. Note: Many American English speakers do not distinguish between these two vowels.
/ɒ/ is a short single sound made without the mouth moving. /əʊ/ is a diphthong -- a longer sound made of two sounds -- meaning that the mouth moves during production of the sound.
To make these sounds, the teeth come together, the corners of the lips come in, and the lips flare. The tongue lifts so the front, middle part of the tongue is very close to the roof of the mouth, but not touching it. The tongue tip points forward but doesn't touch anything.
/s/ and /ʃ/ are unvoiced. /z/ and /ʒ/ are voiced. In /s/ and /z/ the tongue is lower and further forward than /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. /s/ is sometimes spelt 'ce'; eg. in 'distance'.
/ʃ/ is produced with a much more rounded mouth than /s/, and is the sound we make when we want people to be quiet. If you use your voice with that mouth position, you get the starting sound in "sheet" and the ending sound in "push".
The /ŋ/ phoneme is, made through the nose rather than the mouth and it is Voiced, which means you use your vocal cords, but it is defined by the position of your tongue, and is made with the flow of air through the mouth completely blocked.
Examples of the ʧ sound
check /tʆek/ charge /tʆɑːdʒ/ challenge /ˈtʆæləndʒ/ chat /ʧæt/
The sound /ʊ/ is a back, high, lax, rounded vowel. Spelling: “oo” – took, good. “u” – put, bush.
The ʒ sound is from the 'Consonants Pairs' group and it is called the 'Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant'. This means that you create friction through clenched teeth by directing air flow through a narrow channel formed along the middle of the tongue.
/ɔ/ is a rounded, low-mid, back, B-class vowel. The tongue body is somewhat raised and retracted (Collins and Mees 2003;Eijkman 1937). /ɔ/ is nasalised before nasal consonants, and raised and centralised before velars (Collins and Mees 2003). /ɔ/ is lengthened and centralised before /r/.
There are two main types of [u] sound: /uː/, which is long and high, and /ʊ/, which is short and a bit more open. And then there is a third one, /u/, which is a mixture of the previous two.
/ʁ/ (the uvular fricative/approximant, might be familiar to most as the French R, like in rouge) is further back in the throat than /ɣ/ (the velar fricative, or the “gh” sound), the same way /q/ is like /k/ but further back in the throat.