IPA phoneme /ʒ/

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ʒ/ corresponds to the consonant sound spelled "s" in words like "pleasure", and "usually". There aren't actually many words which have this sound on its own. The related phoneme /dʒ/, as in "job", is far more common.

This sound doesn't have its own letter, and the digraph "zh" was invented to represent it in some foreign transliterations. For example Solzhenitsyn is pronounced in English as /soʊlʒəˈniːtsɪn/. Even in English "zh" has been used, in the slang term "the /ju:ʒ/" (the usual) spelled "the yoozh" or "the uzhe".

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

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

Note that in Chinese "zh" stands for [tʂ], a sound similar to /ts/ or /tʃ/ according to Wikipedia or to /dʒ/ according to the very well known linguist John Wells.

Common words
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʒ/ include the following:
 * equation - usually
 * ending in "sion": conclusion - confusion - decision - division - occasion - provision - television - vision
 * ending in "sual": usual - visual
 * ending in "sure": exposure - measure - pleasure

Less common words
Some less common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʒ/ include the following:
 * amnesia - genre - luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊərɪəs/ - seizure
 * ending in "ge": beige - collage - massage - mirage - rouge - sabotage
 * ending in "sion": collision - exclusion - explosion - fusion - illusion - inclusion - invasion - lesion - persuasion - precision - revision
 * ending in "sual": casual
 * ending in "sure": disclosure - enclosure - leisure /ˈleʒər, ˈliːʒər/ - treasure

Variant pronunciations
See also Pronunciation exercises: /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/ § Variant pronunciations.
 * anaesthesia, anesthesia /ˌænəsˈθiːziə, ˌænəsˈθiːʒə/
 * garage /ˈɡærɑːʒ, ˈɡærɑːdʒ, ˈɡærɪdʒ, ɡəˈrɑːʒ, ɡəˈrɑːdʒ/
 * lingerie /ˈlænʒəri, ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ, ˌlɑːnʒəˈreɪ/
 * massage /ˈmæsɑːʒ, məˈsɑːʒ/

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
Many teachers don't teach the phoneme /ʒ/ explicitly in the belief that students will imitate the teacher. However most Spanish speakers can't hear the difference between and /ʃ/ and they are not aware that vision /ˈvɪʒən/ and mission /ˈmɪʃən/ don't rhyme.

Once they learn the sound, since it doesn't exist in Spanish, many Spanish speakers tend to pronounce it like /dʒ/.