Pronounce English Accurately

Video Text

/j/ is the IPA symbol for the sound normally spelt with the letter 'y' in English, as in 'yes' and 'yellow'.

To make the /j/ sound the tongue is raised very high in the mouth until the whole of the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth - the hard palate.

The place of articulation is palatal. It's like a more extreme version of the vowel /iː/, in feet.

The air flow isn't stopped - the air passage is restricted, but still open.

What manner of articulation is that?

Approximant, like /w/.

And it is voiced.

So it's a voiced lateral approximant.

Notice the transcription - the use of the letter 'j' for this sound probably comes from the involvement of German phoneticians in the development of the alphabet as 'j' in German is pronounced /j/.

The IPA symbol [y] represents a vowel, the sound in French tu and German Tüte or Tschüss and isn't one of the sounds of English.

Words with /j/ in initial position:

'yes'

'yellow'

'yawn'

'yard'

'youth'

'you'

It's not always spelt with a 'y', though:

'university',

'useful',

'unity',

'unique',

'unicorn'

the letter name 'U'

all have it, so you have to watch out for that. If a word begins with a /j/ sound, like 'unicorn', then it begins with a consonant, so it's 'a unicorn' not 'an unicorn', 'the /ðiː/ university', not 'the /ðə/ university'.

And in medial position:

'kayak'

'royal'

'loyal'

'reunite'

When /h/ is followed by /juː/ it is natural for it to become [çjuː] as in 'huge', [çjuːdʒ]. This has fricative noise and is actually a palatal fricative rather than an approximant.

The sound /j/ cannot occur in postvocalic position.

Practice sentences with /j/:

This is an unusually useless university even by your standards' yelled Yoko and her youthful friends in unison.

The youth used not to be so unanimously united.

The Uruguayan urologist used his uvula far too much.