She sells seashells - contrasting /ʃ/ and /s/ in English

Welcome to season 3 of English Sound Building! Today, we're contrasting two sounds we've looked at separately before: /ʃ/ and /s/.  We're looking at a lot of minimal pairs, and we're practising with some sentences and a famous tongue twister, too. Have fun!

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Transcript

This week we’re looking at a pair of sounds that we’ve looked at previously in contrast with their voiced pairs, but never with each other: /s/ and /ʃ/. If you haven’t listened to season 1, episode 1 (“peace or peas”) yet, season 2 “it’s sure azure”, or season 2, “wouldya, couldya” I do recommend that you start there. Or, if it’s been a while and you’d benefit from a review, those would be three great workouts to review before today’s.

We’ve mentioned before how /s/ can sometimes become /ʃ/ in connected speech, so there is some blurring between them, but today I want to think about the contrast between them.  We’re going to structure the whole workout around minimal pairs today, because there are loads of them! Again, if you want practise with the sounds in more individual words, go back and review those previous episodes.

Let’s warm up just by moving between the sounds and thinking about what each part of our mouths are doing: /s/ /ʃ/ and /s/ /ʃ/. So, the main differences I feel are that for /s/, the tip and blade of the tongue are further forwards, and also that my tongue is curved to allow air through. For /ʃ/, the tip and blade of my tongue are further back, and my tongue is flatter. For speakers of some languages, it can be hard to find a real distinction between these positions, or you might find that your mouth wants to creep more towards one or the other sound in certain positions. It’s usually a case of moving the tip and blade of your tongue further forward in your mouth, so it’s sitting really close to the back of the upper front teeth, to make the /s/ sound, and making sure the tension in the front of the tongue is there, finding that curl rather than a flatter tongue position.

Let’s start with some minimal pairs with /s/ and /ʃ/ at the beginnings of words. We’ll read the first five together.

1. said -shed
2. sake -shake
3. save -shave
4. sea -she
5. seat -sheet

For the next five, I’ll read the /s/ word: can you give the /ʃ/ word?

1. seen
2. seize 
3. sell 
4. sigh 
5. sign 

Listen and check.

1. seen -sheen
2. seize -she’s
3. sell -shell
4. sigh  -shy
5. sign -shine

..And for the next five, I’ll give the /ʃ/ word: can you give the /s/ word?

1. show
2. shock
3. saw/ sure
4. short
5. shift

Listen and check.

1. show - so
2. shock - sock
3. sure - sore
4. short - sort
5. shift - sift

Ok, let’s try a couple of sentences with those minimal pairs.

• She said she saw the sheet and the seat in the shed.
• She’s sorting and shining the short signs.

Now let’s move on to minimal pairs with /s/ and /ʃ/ in the middle or at the ends of words.

We’ll read the first four together.

1. ass  - ash
2. boss - bosh
3. crass -  crash
4. crust - crushed

For the next five, I’ll read the /s/ word: can you say both?

1. fist 
2. gas 
3. gust 
4. lease 
5. mass 

Listen, repeat, and see how you did.

1. fist - fished
2. gas - gash
3. gust - gushed
4. lease - leash
5. mass - mash

…And for the final five, I’ll read the /ʃ/ word: can you say both?

1. mesh
2. plush
3. push
4. rushed
5. sash

Listen, repeat, and see how you did

1. mess  - mesh
2. plus - plush
3. puss - push
4. rust - rushed
5. sass - sash

Now let’s try a couple of sentences with words from those minimal pairs:

• The crass boss bashed his ass on the ash sash.
• The mesh is a mess! The gas is gushing out of the rust!

Finally, let’s come back to a famous tongue twister which is just perfect for practising these sounds:

She sells seashells on the seashore.

There’s also a fuller version, written by a songwriter named Terry Sullivan around 1908. Some people say this is inspired by Mary Anning, a famous fossil-hunter… there’s no real proof of this, but if you don’t know anything about Mary Anning, go and look her up: it’s a fascinating story.

She sells seashells by the seashore.
 The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure.
 For if she sells seashells by the seashore
 Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.