This is the /j/ sound, as in You /juː/
Year /jɪə/ And use /juːz/
It is a sound from the Single Consonants group.
The /j/ sound is called the “palatal approximant,”
which means that you form a narrow space in the middle of your mouth with your tongue.
The /j/ sound is made through the mouth and is Voiced, which means you vibrate your vocal
chords to make the sound. It is defined by the position of your tongue and it is an approximant,
which is a sound made by creating a narrow space in your mouth through which air flows.
In this case, it’s the space between your tongue and the top of your mouth. The sides
are blocked so the flow of air just goes through the middle of the mouth.
To produce the /j/ sound, raise the sides of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and
voice out through your mouth while lowering the back of your tongue.
The middle and front of your tongue should
be touching the roof of your mouth to begin with.
Then you voice out and drop your
tongue away from the roof of your mouth. The air flows out through the centre, between
the sides of your tongue.
The /j/ sound is usually spelled with the letter ‘y,’
but can also be spelled with
an ‘i’ as in: View /vjuː/
Also, a very common construction, often called a “long u” sound, is spelled with just
the letter ‘u’ and pronounced /ju:/ or /jʊ/, as in the words:
During /'djʊərɪŋ/ Computer /kəmˈpjuːtə/
And argue /ˈɑːgjuː/
Here are some words that start with /j/.
Yes /jes/ Unit /ˈjuːnɪt/
Yard /jɑːd/ And young /jʌŋ/
Here are some words with the /j/ sound in the middle.
Community /kəˈmjuːnəti/ Billion /ˈbɪljən/
Beyond /bɪˈjɒnd/ And beautiful /ˈbjuːtəfəl/
English words don’t normally end
with the /j/ sound.
So that's it for the /j/ sound.
To see the pronunciation explanation and examples for another sound,
click on its symbol.
To learn about the groups of sounds,
Vowels, Diphthongs, Single Consonants, or Consonant Pairs, click on the links to the left.
To hear just the pronunciation of an individual symbol, check out our interactive phonetic chart video.
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