Hello, I’m Grace. Welcome back to my channel. Lots of students are struggling with these “zh ch sh r” sounds. if you're one of them, or you just want to improve your pronunciation to sound more like a native, please don’t miss today’s video. Because in this video, I’m going to tell you what are the differences between these four sounds, and also I’ll help you to practice them. So, I know that these sounds are pretty similar to some in English, such as / dʒ /, like “just” / tʃ /, like “touch”. / ʃ /, like “push”. But actually these are not the same as Chinese sounds. In Chinese, we don't have these sounds and in English, you don't have our “zh ch sh r” sounds. So, I think the best way to learn these unique Chinese sounds is to know where to put your lips and tongue, try to let your mouth get used to the position and keep practicing! OK without further ado, let’s get into it! I’ll start with the most basic one: sh ㄕ BTW, the symbol next to the Pinyin is Zhuyin, which is the phonetic symbols we use in Taiwan. OK, the first thing we need to do is to take a look at the IPA of sh ㄕ So you might wonder what IPA is and why we should look at it. Then let me briefly explain it to you. IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet, through this thing, we can understand how we make those specific sounds. So the IPA of sh ㄕ sound is this one: / ʂ /, yap looks a little bit weird, but it’s very very useful. First of all, you might notice that there is a curve here. It means that to make this sound, we need to curl our tongue and let the tip of our tongue point to the position where the picture shows. The tip of your tongue will be a little bit close to the roof of your mouth, but not quite touching it. And then you let the air go out through your mouth to voice out. sh ok, practice with me: sh sh sh Then let’s move on to the next one: zh ㄓ Base on the tongue position of last one “sh”, this one just adds some movements. Then you can make this “zh” sound. The IPA of “zh" is this one / ʈʂ /, and here you can see the curve as well, so it means that we also need to curl our tongue. the position of the tongue is exactly the same as in “sh”. So what is the difference? You can see the IPA of “zh” has an extra symbol: / ʈ /, so it means that to make the “zh” sound, you need to block the air in your mouth first, and then let it out. The way to block air is very simple, let’s look at the picture. First, curl your tongue, and let the tip of your tongue touch the position I point out, and then start to let the air go through your mouth. Your tongue is sticking to the position I point out, so the air can not go out. And this means you’ve successfully blocked the air. Next thing we should do is let the tip of your tongue go down a little and let the air out. Then you can make the “zh” sound. OK, practice with me: zh zh zh The next one is “ch ㄔ” The position of the tongue is same as “zh” and “sh”. The IPA is this, it’s pretty similar with the last one “zh” / ʈʂ /. It also has an extra symbol / ʈ / here. So you know what it means, it means that you need to block the air first. Look at the IPA of “zh” and “ch”, The only difference is that “ch” has a small “h” here that “zh” doesn’t have. The little “h” means that when you pronounce this sound you need to exhale more strongly. OK let me show you with a piece of paper. When I pronounce the last one “zh” which doesn’t have an “h” in its IPA, the paper is not moving. On the other hand, when I pronounce “ch”, the paper will move because the air coming out of my mouth is stronger. So the strength of the air out of your mouth is the difference between pronouncing “zh” and “ch”. Let’s practice “ch" together: ch ch ch The last one, “r” ㄖ, also confuses many students. But actually this one is not that complicated to learn, if you know how to pronounce “sh” already. Because the tongue position of “r” is exactly the same as with “sh”. Everything is the same, you don't have to block the air, you don't have to touch any position in your mouth. you just curl your tongue and let the tip of your tongue point to the same position of “sh” , and then let the air out. Now, I’m going to tell you the secret to making “sh” and “r” different from each other. That is “r” is a voiced sound, which means that you need to use your vocal cords, let your vocal cords vibrate stronger. You can put your hand on your throat, and feel that: when you pronounce “r”, the vibration should be stronger than pronouncing “sh”. OK, practice with me: r r r After you're aware of the differences of these four sounds. Let’s practice them together: First, let’s practice “zh”ㄓ and “ch”ㄔ: Remember? the distinction of them is the strength of the air, the air is stronger when you pronounce “ch”: 知道 吃飯 直到 遲到 Next, let’s practice “sh” ㄕ and “r” ㄖ: The difference is that when you pronounce “r” ㄖ, your vocal cords vibrate stronger. r 勢力 日曆 柿子 日子 OK, this is it for today. I’ll put this information and the pictures in this video into my handout. So if you want to get that, remember to go to my instagram and find it. Another thing is that I’ll do more pronunciation training in the future, so if there are some consonants or vowels in Chinese that bother you a lot, Remember to leave a comment below and let me know. I’ll see you next time, Bye!
