IPA phoneme /dʒ/

In Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /dʒ/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "job", and "jet" and the final one in "page" and "change".

/dʒ/ is a voiced consonant; its unvoiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /tʃ/.

/dʒ/ is an affricate; its fricative counterpart is IPA phoneme /ʒ/.

Common words

 * Initial pronunciation of /dʒ/
 * as j: January - jam - Jamaica - James - Jane - Japan - jeans - job - John - join - joke - journey - July - jump - judge - June - just
 * as ge/gi/gy: gentleman - gender - gene - general - generate - generation - genetic - Germany - George - Georgia - gesture - giant - gym
 * See Decoding the letter G for exceptions.


 * Mid-position pronunciation of /dʒ/
 * as j: enjoy - injure - major - majority - object - project - reject - subject
 * as dj: adjust
 * as ge/gi/gy: agency - Algeria - Angela - apologise - apologize - Argentina - Belgium - biology - danger - Egypt - energy - engineer - imagine - Los Angeles - Niger - Nigeria - refrigerator - original - region - Roger - strategy - technology - urgent - Virginia


 * as dge: budget


 * Oddity: as ga: margarine /ˌmɑːrdʒəˈriːn, ˈmɑːrdʒərən/


 * Final pronunciation of /dʒ/
 * as ge: advantage - age - average - change - charge - college - huge - image - language - large - manage - orange - page - range - stage
 * as dge: badge - edge - fridge - judge - knowledge

Homophones:
 * genes - jeans; Jim - gym;

Less common words

 * genre - genus - germ - gin - ginger - gist - gypsum - gypsy

/dʒ/ spelled with "d"

 * education /ˌedʒʊˈkeɪʃən/
 * gradual /ˈɡrædʒʊəl/
 * graduate (noun) /ˈɡrædʒʊət/
 * graduate (verb) /ˈɡrædʒʊeɪt/
 * individual /ˌɪndɪˈvɪdʒʊəl/
 * procedure /prəˈsiːdʒər/
 * soldier /ˈsəʊldʒər/

/d/ or /dʒ/

 * cordial (friendly) /ˈkɔːrdʒəl/ /ˈkɔːrdiːəl/
 * fraudulent /ˈfrɔːdʒələnt/ /ˈfrɔːdjələnt/

/dʒ/ spelled with "ch"

 * sandwich: /ˈsænwɪtʃ, ˈsænwɪdʒ/
 * spinach: /ˈspɪnɪtʃ, ˈspɪnɪdʒ/
 * Greenwich /ˈgrɪnɪdʒ, ˈgrɪnɪtʃ, ˈgrenɪtʃ, ˈgrenɪdʒ/
 * Norwich /ˈnɒrɪdʒ, ˈnɒrɪtʃ/

/dʒ/ spelled with "t"

 * congratulations: /kənˌgrætʃəˈleɪʃənz/ /kənˌgrædʒəˈleɪʃənz/ The pronunciation with /dʒ/, even if it is recognized by Random House is regarded by some as informal or sloppy.

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
As /dʒ/ doesn't exist in Spanish, many Spanish speakers pronounce the initial "j" in words like "job" and "jet" like /j/, i.e. they do not distinguish very well between "yet" and "jet" or "yob" and "job". Other sounds that they may confuse this sound with are /tʃ/, a sound which does exist in Spanish, and two other sounds which don't: /ʃ/ or /ʒ/, especially as final sounds.

Unbelievably some Spanish speakers pronounce "g" as /h/ (actually [x] ), just like in Spanish. It is not as uncommon as it should be to hear (from inteligente).

The sentence "güi don nid nou eduqueishon" appears several times in Google, with several spellings for each word. You can find, for example, eduqueichon, edukeichon, edukeison, eduqueiyon, ediukeishon or ediuqueishon. Also, taking into account the actual accent of the song, educaichon or educaishon. However, the more "correct" transcription eyuqueichon at the time of writing appeared only once (in a Twitter message). Other combinations (such as ellukeishon or eyucaichon) were not present. This confirms that Spanish speakers don't know that education has a /dʒ/ sound.

Argentinian Spanish
Most Argentinians pronounce "ll" and "y" as /ʃ/, while some pronounce them like /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. In any case, they confuse these three sounds in any position, not just final. Moreover, since standard pronunciation of Spanish "y" is similar to /j/ some students may also confuse /j/ and /ʃ/. For Argentinians English /j/ is like Spanish "hi" as in "hielo" [ˈjelo].