/ʃ/ as in "shoe"

/ʃ/ is a voiceless postalveolar fricative of General American English, as in "shoe" and "fish." To produce it, lips slightly rounded, tongue near roof of mouth. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this consonant.

How to make /ʃ/

voiceless postalveolar fricative — lips slightly rounded, tongue near roof of mouth.

Sounds that learners confuse with /ʃ/

• /ʃ/ vs /tʃ/ — /tʃ/ as in "chair"
• /ʃ/ vs /s/ — /s/ as in "sun"

Minimal pairs for /ʃ/

/ʃ/ vs /tʃ/

/ʃ/	/tʃ/
shin	chin
sheep	cheap
wash	watch
share	chair
shop	chop
shoes	choose
ship	chip

/ʃ/ vs /s/

/ʃ/	/s/
ship	sip
she	sea
shock	sock
shore	sore
shell	sell
short	sort
shave	save