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I’m confused with these two sounds when they are at the end of the syllable. I know that “ch” and “j” are comprised of two sound: tsh and dzh respectively. So I think words like teach and page are pronounced like this: teat and pad in the first part without releasing the air (stop sound). But that would sound like the word “teat” and “paid”. I’m not sure about it even when I listen carefully to the pronunciation of the words. And here’s my recording: teach and page

In the recording I used with t and d in the first pair and the second pair is what I have always used.

Which is correct?

And if possible could you give pronunciations of the word slowly?

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2 Answers 2

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In teach, you're correctly making the ch sound, and the whole word sounds very good. But for page, you're also making the ch sound, but you need to make the j sound.

How do you say other words containing j?

Keep in mind, a j sound at the end of a word is the same as a j sound at the beginning of a word; "page" ends with the same sound that "gem" and "joy" start with.

The main difference between the ch and j (or soft g) sounds are that the ch is unvoiced, and the j is voiced. When you're making the ch sound, your vocal chords don't hum. To make the j sound, put your tongue in the same place but a little softer, and hum your vocal chords. Here's more about voiced and unvoiced sounds: https://jonathansamericanenglish.com/2017/11/09/voiced-and-unvoiced-sounds/

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  • To elaborate: You've figured out that the /ch/ and the /j/ noises are almost like their own syllables (even though a native speaker would probably say that "teach" and "page" were one-syllable words). You have the hissing noise of the /ch/ down, but try to pronounce "page" slowly as a two-syllable "paid-juh" and then speed it up and shorten the "uh" noise as much as you can. You need to continue to use voice just a little longer through the word so that the /j/ phoneme is recognizable, without going too long to make too much of an "uh" noise.
    – Eikre
    Sep 14, 2018 at 18:36
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The place of articulation of both phonemes is the same. What makes them different is sonority (vibration of the vocal chords), ch is voiceless and j voiced. English has two affricate phonemes, /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, often spelled ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨j⟩, respectively.

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  • Answers on Stack Exchange aren't designed to be replies to other answers — they're answers to the question — so I've edited this to hopefully make it clearer, but please double-check to make sure it's answering the question as squarely as possible Mar 9, 2018 at 0:44

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