Vivian measured the treasure with pleasure at leisure.
Four words in this sentence share the same sound in the middle, and it is one that English spells in several ways. Get it wrong and measure can slip into a hiss, or vision can become fission.
👅 Sounds to Practise
- ZH /ʒ/, as in measure, treasure, pleasure, leisure and vision. It is the buzzing cousin of SH. Put your lips slightly rounded, keep the tongue tip near the ridge just behind your top front teeth, and let your voice buzz as the air flows out.
- SH /ʃ/, as in she and shell. Same lips and tongue shape as ZH, but with no buzz. This is the partner to compare against.
- J /dʒ/, as in judge and jam. Close to ZH, but it starts with a tiny stop, where your tongue touches and then lets go. ZH has no stop at the start.
Quick test: say a long shhhh, as if asking for quiet. Now switch on your voice, so the sound buzzes like a bee: zhhhh. Your mouth stays almost the same. Only the buzz changes.
🐢 Start Slow
Say each chunk slowly. Let the buzz in the middle of each word last a moment.
Vivian measured
the treasure
with pleasure
at leisure.
Now join the halves: Vivian measured the treasure … with pleasure at leisure.
🚶 Normal Speed
Say the whole sentence at a natural pace, as if you were describing a collector who enjoys her work:
VIV-ee-an MEA-sured the TREA-sure with PLEA-sure at LEI-sure.
Keep the buzz soft and steady. Don't turn the s into a hiss.
🚀 Tongue-Twister Mode
Ready? Say it three times in a row, as fast as you can:
Vivian measured the treasure with pleasure at leisure.
If the sound turns into a hiss or a j, slow down for one round and let the buzz finish each word.
🤯 Why Is This So Difficult?
ZH is hard for a reason that has little to do with your mouth:
- The spelling hides it. All four words in the sentence use s, and s usually says the S sound, as in sea. Your eyes say "hiss," and your voice has to override that.
- The same letter can say different sounds. S is ZH in pleasure and usual, but SH in sugar and sure. Spelling can't tell you which one to use.
- The J trap. Learners often start with a j, as in judge, because it is close. ZH almost never starts a word, so a word-initial buzz is usually a slip toward J.
- It's a rare sound. It appears in fewer English words than most consonants, so it gets little practice in everyday speech.
Keep the mouth shape of SH, and add the buzz. Everything else follows.
👀 Words to Notice
These two real words differ only in this sound, and the meaning changes completely:
- vision (ZH) / fission (SH): the first is something you see with your eyes; the second is a splitting apart, as in nuclear fission.
Now try words where the spelling is the same, but the sound is different:
- usual and pleasure (both ZH), with s spelled in each: the sound is a buzz.
- sugar and sure (both SH), with s spelled in each: the sound is a hiss.
Say each pair slowly, then quickly: vision, fission, vision, fission.
🏆 OddLingo Challenge
- Round 1: say it slowly, one chunk at a time, with a clear buzz in every ZH.
- Round 2: say the whole sentence once at normal speed.
- Round 3: say it three times fast without stopping.
Bonus round: make your own sentence with at least three ZH words, such as The usual measure of pleasure is a treasure of leisure. Check that every ZH word has a buzz and no hiss.
🧐 Did You Know?
English has no letter for this sound. Wikipedia notes that it is not represented by a specific letter or digraph, so it turns up in the spelling of words like measure and vision rather than in a letter of its own. It is also one of the least common consonant sounds in English, so you will meet it less often than most others.
🔗 Related Practice
- Six Shy Sheep: the voiceless SH and S sounds, the partner to ZH.
- Chip's Jolly Jam Jars: CH and J, the sounds to keep apart from ZH.
- Bow, Row, Sow: One Spelling, Two Sounds: another word family where the spelling doesn't tell you the sound.