/ʒ/ is a voiced consonant sound and you'll feel friction as your voice buzzes between the blade of your tongue and your gum ridge.
You make the /ʒ/ sound by directing the blade of your tongue toward the gum ridge without touching it like this, /ʒ/.
The sides of the tongue should be touching the sides of your upper teeth.
Here are two common mistakes with the /ʒ/ sound.
The first is devoicing, so you turn the /ʒ/ sound into a /ʃ/ sound.
And the result is a word like "garage" sounds like "garach".
The second challenge is turning the /ʒ/ sound into a /s/ sound, so a word like "treasure" sounds like "treassure".
Let's work together to find the correct placement of the /ʒ/ sound.
We'll do that by pressing the blade of the tongue on the gum ridge to make the /n/ sound...
...and then releasing to feel the buzzing flow of air for the /ʒ/ sound.
Okay, try along with me.
/n/, /ʒ/, /n/, /ʒ/, /n/, /ʒ/.
Now, let's add the /j/ sound, so you could feel the sides of your tongue on your upper teeth.
And you can do it with your hands as well, mirroring what's going on in your mouth.
/j/. Feel the sides of your tongue and hold them there, and now move the blade up for /ʒ/.
Let's do that together. /j/, /ʒ/, /j/, /ʒ/, /j/, /ʒ/.
Good. Now that you have the placement, let's try some phrases.
Beige garage.
Casual massage.
Envision pleasure.
Unusual camouflage.
Be sure to put this into practice on EnglishCentral and good luck!
