How to Pronounce the /j/ Sound 

How to Pronounce the /j/ Sound

In this lesson, we are going to focus on how we can learn to produce the /j/ sound using the proper articulatory organs.

What Type of Sound Is /j/?

/j/ is a consonant in the English language.

How to Produce /j/?

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As you can see in picture (b), the tongue plays an important part here. In order to produce it, the middle part of the tongue raises. The tip of the tongue does not make contact anywhere and remains in its place. Also, note that the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth. The uvula stops the air from going up through the nose. If you pay attention to the throat, you can see that the circle is red, indicating that this sound is voiced. So, we have to use our vocal cords. Gently, we move the air out of our mouths.
In the picture (a), You can see that the lips and the teeth are parted. The shape of the mouth is like that when we pronounce the vowel /i/.
In picture (c), you can see that the tongue does not touch anywhere in the mouth.

Which Letters are Pronounced as /j/?

The sound /j/ is represented by the following letters:

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y:

Example

you /juː/

year /jɪr/

yellow /jeloʊ/

u:

Example

use /juːz/

unit /ˈjuː.nɪt/

cute /kjuːt/

i:

Example

onion /ˈʌn.jən/

million /ˈmɪl.jən/

familiar /fəˈmɪl.jər/

/j/ Sound in the Most Common World Languages

There is a table below that helps you see which languages in the most common languages spoken around the world have the /j/ sound

Existence

Example

Mandarin

鸭 (yā)

Spanish

rey

Hindi

यान

Bengali

নয়ন

Portuguese

boia

Russian

яма

Japanese

焼 (yaki)

Vietnamese

x

-

Turkish

yol

French

yeux

German

Jacke

Italian

ione

Persian

یزد

Standard Arabic

يوم

Korean

여섯

Indonesian

yakin

Filipino

yupî

Hungarian

játék

Dutch

ja

Polish

jutro

Romanian

iar

Swedish

jag

Czech

je

Greek*

γη

Ukrainian

їжак

Urdu

یان

* The sound is similar, but it is not identical.

Listening

Below, there is an audio file that helps you learn the proper pronunciation of the /j/ sound:

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