154: 'She sells seashells'

A tongue twister to compare the sh sound and s sound.

Transcrpit

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 154th episode.

"She sells seashells by the seashore" was one of my favorite tongue twisters when I was growing up. If you want to practice alternating the s sound and sh sound, there is nothing better.

I was surprised to recently learn that the tongue twister was written for a real-life woman named Mary Anning. Mary was born back in 1799. Throughout her life she became well-known in the scientific realm for having made some important scientific fossil discoveries. She made these discoveries when she was out collecting seashells on the beach. She was collecting the the shells to sell in order to help support her family. In the process of collecting and selling, she discovered new species of sea life. In 1908, Terry Sullivan wrote the children's tongue twister, "She Sells Seashells" based on Ms. Anning.

Even though Mary Anning had a very interesting life, my goal here today is not to teach you about her interesting finds; I just to help you pronounce the sh sound and s sound more clearly.

Hopefully you remember from past episodes that the s sound and sh sound are in the category of fricatives. A fricative is a sound that is created when air is pushed out through a small opening in the vocal tract.

When practicing the s sound and sh sound, you should also know that these sounds are both unvoiced. This means that the vocal cords do not vibrate during the production of these sounds.

And finally to be able to talk about the s sound and sh sound, you have to be able to identify your tooth ridge. The tooth ridge is the bony bump behind your top front teeth. You can easily feel your tooth ridge with the tip of your tongue.

The s sound is produced when the tip of the tongue is placed close to the front of tooth ridge. The tongue is shaped so that there is a groove in the tip, from front to back. The tongue is kept tense as air is pushed between the groove in the tip of the tongue and front of the tooth ridge.

Listen to the s sound: (s sound).

In contrast, the sh sound is produced with the front of the tongue more flat and farther back in the mouth. The friction occurs between the back of the tooth ridge and the front of the tongue. The air is pushed through wider area instead of through a small groove.

Listen to the sh sound: (sh sound).

I will say the s sound and then the sh sound. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me:

(s sound, sh sound)

Again:

(s sound, sh sound)

Before practicing our tongue twister, let's practice a few easier minimal pairs. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me:

see, she
sign, shine
mess, mesh

Now let's try the tongue twister. After I read it from beginning to end, I'll read it again in short parts for you to try to repeat. I will say that this tongue twister is hard even for native English speakers, so if your tongue has a hard time with it, don't worry, so does mine!

Here is the whole thing:

She sells seashells on the seashore
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure
So if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Okay, are you ready? I'll read it in parts and I'll leave time for you to repeat:

She sells seashells
on the seashore

The shells she sells
are seashells, I'm sure

So if she sells seashells
on the seashore

Then I'm sure
she sells seashore shells.

Was that fun? Let's do it again:

She sells seashells
on the seashore

The shells she sells
are seashells, I'm sure

So if she sells seashells
on the seashore

Then I'm sure
she sells seashore shells.

Very good! It's not uncommon for non-native speakers to have difficulty with these two sounds. We do have a nice lesson up on Pronuncian that compares these two sounds, as well as their voiced counterparts, the z sound and zh sound.

I'll link to that lesson, as well as the spelling and pronunciation lessons for the s sound and sh sound from this episode's transcript page. You can find all of our transcripts by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

You will also find the link to the Spanish podcasts by going to that same webpage: www.pronuncian.com/podcast. And as it turns out, we will be publishing the s sound/z sound podcast in Spanish the same day we publish this episode. To make it clear, these podcasts are about American English pronunciation, but they are taught in Spanish so people who do not have a high enough level of English to fully understand the podcast in English can still learn about English pronunciation.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.