IPA phoneme /ʃ/

In Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ʃ/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "shoe", and "she" and the final one in "push" and "fish".

/ʃ/ is an unvoiced consonant; its voiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /ʒ/.

/ʃ/ is a fricative; its affricate counterpart is IPA phoneme /tʃ/.

Common words

 * with "sh": cash - crash - dish - establish - fashion - finish - fish - flash - fresh - push - relationship - shake - shall - shape - share - she - shift - shine - ship - shock - shoe - shoot - shop - short - should - shoulder - show - wash - wish
 * with "ss":
 * with "ssi": commission - depression - discussion - expression - impression - mission - professional - Russia - session
 * with "ssu": assure - issue - pressure - tissue


 * with "ti":
 * with "tio": action - assumption - condition - definition - education - function - generation - information - location - mention - nation - option - rational - station - tradition - variation
 * with "tia": essential - initial - initiative - partial - potential - substantial
 * with "tie": patience - patient


 * with "ci": efficient - musician - racial - special
 * with "ce": ocean
 * with "s": Asia /ˈeɪʃə/ or /ˈeɪʒə/ - sugar - sure
 * "x" as /kʃ/: anxious
 * with "ch": machine

/ʃ/ or /s/

 * associate

Less common words
In words of French origin /ʃ/ can be spelled "ch".
 * with "sh": bush
 * with "si": controversial
 * with "ssi": aggression, obsession
 * with "sc": conscience, conscious, fascism
 * "x" as /kʃ/: crucifixion, flexion
 * brochure, cache, champagne, chauffeur, chef, Chicago, moustache, mustache, parachute

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
While Spanish does have /tʃ/, it doesn't have /ʃ/, so there'll be a tendency to pronounce "shoes" as "choose", "shop" as "chop" and "sheet" as "cheat" (this latter example having another, notorious pronunciation difficulty...). Likewise, practice is needed with /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/, as in pleasure, leisure, etc.

It is very difficult for Spanish speakers to pronounce the combination /ʃr/ as in "shrimp". In Spain the movie Shrek is pronounced [eʃ.ɾek] or even [etʃ.ɾek], and in Latin America it is pronounced [ʃ.ɾek] or [ʃe.ɾek], but most likely [tʃ.ɾek].