Name: Consonant Sound / j / as in "yes" – American English Pronunciation
Uploaded: 2025-03-27T16:06:55.000Z
Duration: 11 min 3 s
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In this video, we're going to talk about the American consonant sound "-y," as in the word "-yes."

You can also hear this sound in words like "-year," "-your," "-cue," or "-fury."

We'll be using a special phonetic symbol, "-y," for this sound.

Excuses for stating the obvious, but remember, this is not the letter J.

Let's conduct a little pronunciation experiment.

Your task is to pronounce these four words without the "-y sound."

As a result, you should get four new words.

As you can see, these new words are pronounced almost the same as the previous ones.

The only difference is that they don't have the "-y sound."

Obviously, the "-y is kind of a big deal.

It always occurs before vowel sounds, and that's why many people think it's a part of a vowel.

The "-y is pronounced without blocking the airstream, which makes it a vowel.

However, the "-y doesn't form a syllable, and that makes it a consonant.

For the sake of compromise, you can call the "-y a semivowel."

There's something else you should know about this sound.

The "-y belongs to the category of consonants that are called the glides.

A glide is a sound that's made with the air flowing over the tongue when it leaves the mouth.

OK, this looks like the perfect moment to find out how to make this sound.

Slightly open your mouth and leave your lips in a neutral position.

Now let's put your tongue in the correct position for this sound.

Arch your tongue and raise it to the roof of your mouth.

The tip of your tongue should be lowered behind your bottom front teeth.

Remember, even though the "-y is a consonant, it's pronounced like a vowel, so you should feel the air gliding over your tongue.

The "-y is a voice sound, so don't forget to add your voice.

Here are a few typical mistakes that people make when pronouncing this sound.

Many non-native English speakers confuse the "-y and the "-j sounds.

This happens because in some languages, the letter Y is pronounced as the "-j sound."

As a result, this often leads to misunderstandings.

Remember, in English, the letter Y is pronounced as the "-y sound," when it occurs before vowels.

Another typical mistake is that some non-native speakers drop the "-y sound," especially when it occurs at the beginning of words.

This happens mostly because they don't have this consonant sound in their native languages, and therefore it's hard for them to recognize it in English.

As a result, this completely changes the meanings of words.

In English, the "-y consonant is found at the beginning of many common words.

Do your best to practice words with this sound as often as possible to learn to recognize and pronounce it correctly.

You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation.

You'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word.

Do your best to practice as many words as possible.

We'll start with the "-y sound," represented by the letter Y.

yesterday yell yogurt lawyer yet yes yellow year you

Let's stop here for a second and take a short break.

Next, we'll practice words with the "-y sound," represented by the letters U and I.

Remember, it's still the same sound, just a different spelling.

computer junior human cute humor onion curious menu uniform music unit view usual figure

Let's talk about the spelling for the "-y sound."

If you didn't fast-forward through the practice part, you noticed that the letter Y is NOT the most frequent spelling for the "-y sound."

The "-y is written with the letter Y in just 15% of words.

Most often, this sound is found in words with the letter U, like unit or cure.

Quite often, the "-y is represented by the letter I, as in million or piano."

We also can't ignore the EW combination, like in the words few or view.

If all this stuff doesn't make you an expert, we don't know what will.

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Consonant Sound / j / as in "yes" – American English Pronunciation

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