ZH Sound: Speech Therapy Guide, Words & Games

The /ZH/ sound is written /ʒ/ in the phonetic alphabet, and most children master it by age 7. This guide covers how to make the /ZH/ sound, 60 practice words split across initial, medial, and final position, the errors children make most often, and 8 games for practicing it.

Example ZH words: genre, azure, Asia, Asian (beginning); television, decision, division, occasion (middle); garage, beige, rouge, luge (end).

The /ZH/ sound is a voiced postalveolar fricative — the buzzing sound in the middle of "measure," "vision," and "television." It is the voiced twin of /SH/: same tongue and lip position, voice turned on. /ZH/ is the rarest consonant in English, and it lives almost entirely inside words. It essentially never starts an English word, and the handful of words that end with it ("garage," "beige," "rouge") are all borrowed from French.

Age of mastery:7
Frequency:Less Common
Games available:8

How to Make the ZH Sound

Set your mouth up exactly as you would for /SH/: round your lips slightly and push them forward, then pull your tongue back so the wide front part sits close to the roof of your mouth, just behind the bumpy ridge. The sides of your tongue touch your upper back teeth. Now turn your voice on and let the air buzz through the channel. Where /SH/ is a quiet "shhh," /ZH/ is a humming "zhhh" — put a hand on your throat and you should feel it vibrate.

IPA Symbol: /ʒ/

Most children master the /ZH/ sound by age 7. It is one of the last consonants to settle in, partly because it is so rare that children hear it far less often than other sounds. Because /ZH/ shares its mouth position with /SH/, it usually arrives once /SH/ is solid and voicing is under control.

Common ZH Sound Errors

  • Devoicing: saying /SH/ instead of /ZH/ (e.g., "meashure" for "measure")
  • Substituting /J/ (e.g., "garaj" for "garage" or "vidgeon" for "vision")
  • Substituting /Z/ (e.g., "treazure" for "treasure")
  • Stopping the airflow so the sound starts with a /D/ press instead of buzzing continuously
  • Losing the sound entirely inside longer words (e.g., "telvision," "decidion")

ZH Word Lists by Position

Practice these words organized by where the /ZH/ sound appears. Start with the position your child finds easiest, or open the complete ZH word list.

Initial ZH Words

/ZH/ at the beginning of words

genreazureAsiaAsianusualusuallyvisionversionvisualmeasuretreasurepleasureleisureseizureclosurecasualfusionlesionPersiaregime
Initial ZH Words— practice tips & sentences

Medial ZH Words

/ZH/ in the middle of words

televisiondecisiondivisionoccasionunusualconfusionconclusionexplosioncollisionillusioninvasionevasionexposureenclosureprecisionprovisionrevisionsupervisionenvisionerosion
Medial ZH Words— practice tips & sentences

Final ZH Words

/ZH/ at the end of words

garagebeigerougelugemassagemiragecollagecorsagebarragemontageprestigetriagesabotagecamouflageentourageconciergefuselageespionagedressagedecoupage
Final ZH Words— practice tips & sentences
Practice these words with our games

How to Practice ZH Words at Home

Evidence-based strategies parents can use to support /ZH/ sound practice.

1

Start from /SH/, which most children already have. Have them hold a long "shhh," then turn the voice on without moving anything: "shhh" becomes "zhhh."

2

Put a hand on the throat to feel the difference — no vibration for /SH/, a steady buzz for /ZH/.

3

Practice in the middle of words first, since that is where nearly every /ZH/ word lives: "mea-sure," "vi-sion," "trea-sure," "u-sual."

4

Use the "-sion" and "-sure" spelling patterns as a word-finding shortcut. Once your child can say "vision," "decision," "division," and "television" follow quickly.

5

Contrast /ZH/ with /J/ using the pair "lesion / legion," and with /SH/ using near-pairs like "Confucian / confusion" and "dilution / delusion."

6

Save the French borrowings ("garage," "beige," "rouge," "massage") for last. They are the only place /ZH/ ends a word, and many American speakers say some of them with /J/ anyway.

7

Because /ZH/ is so rare, build practice into a few reliable everyday phrases — "my favorite television show," "a treasure hunt," "good decision" — rather than hunting for new words.

Practice Sentences for the ZH Sound

Read these sentences aloud with your child. Words containing the /ZH/ sound are highlighted.

Measure the treasure and put it away with pleasure.

It is a pleasure to watch television during my leisure time.

The garage door was painted beige, not rouge.

Her decision about the division caused some confusion.

The usual version of the story has a surprise conclusion.

Out in the desert we saw a mirage that looked like a collage.

The magician's illusion was an unusual vision.

The concierge kept the camouflage jacket in the garage.

Games for the ZH Sound

Practice the /ZH/ sound with interactive games designed by speech pathologists.

Bubble Pop

/ZH/ practice

Memory Match

/ZH/ practice

Pizza Builder

/ZH/ practice

Space Blaster

/ZH/ practice

Sound Fishing

/ZH/ practice

Word Runner

/ZH/ practice

Whack-a-Word

/ZH/ practice

Story Adventure

/ZH/ practice

Play games for the /ZH/ soundBrowse all activities

ZH Sound — Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions parents ask about the /ZH/ sound in speech therapy.

Are there any English words that start with the /ZH/ sound?
Essentially none. /ZH/ is the rarest consonant in English and it almost never opens a word — the one example people can usually name is "genre," a French borrowing, and plenty of American speakers say that with a /J/ instead. Because of that, our "initial" list uses words where /ZH/ arrives as early as it possibly can: right at the start of the second syllable, as in "measure," "vision," "usual," "azure," and "Asia." Those give your child the earliest practice position that real English offers. If you find a word list claiming lots of words that begin with /ZH/, it is borrowing from another language, such as French or Russian.
Is /ZH/ the same as /SH/?
No — but they are made in exactly the same place. The lips, tongue, and airflow are identical; the only difference is voicing. /SH/ is voiceless ("shhh," no throat vibration) and /ZH/ is voiced ("zhhh," a buzz you can feel with a hand on the throat). That is why teaching /ZH/ usually starts from a /SH/ your child already says well: hold the "shhh" and simply turn the voice on.
Why does my child say "garaj" instead of "garage"?
Swapping /J/ for /ZH/ is the most common /ZH/ error, because /J/ is far more frequent in English and shares almost the same mouth position — /J/ just adds a quick /D/ press before the buzz. Before treating it as a speech error, though, check the word itself: "garage," "beige," and "massage" are genuinely pronounced with /J/ by many English speakers, especially in British English, so "garaj" may simply be the pronunciation your child has heard. It only counts as an error if the /J/ substitution shows up everywhere, including in "measure," "vision," and "treasure."
When should my child be able to say the /ZH/ sound?
Most children have /ZH/ by around age 7, making it one of the last consonants to develop alongside /R/, /S/, and /TH/. It is late partly because it is so uncommon — a child simply gets far less practice hearing and saying it. A five-year-old who says "meashure" is well within normal range; a seven- or eight-year-old who still cannot produce the sound is worth mentioning to a speech-language pathologist.
Do speech therapists target /ZH/ on its own?
Not usually as a first target. Because /ZH/ appears in so few words, therapists typically work on /SH/ and the /CH/-/J/ pair first, and /ZH/ often falls into place on its own once those are accurate and the child can control voicing. When it is targeted directly, it is generally late in therapy, with older children, or when a child's speech pattern devoices lots of sounds rather than just this one.

More ZH Word Lists & Resources

All ZH Words

Complete 60-word list across every position

Initial ZH Words

20 words with practice tips

Medial ZH Words

20 words with practice tips

Final ZH Words

20 words with practice tips

Speech Sound Development Chart

What age each speech sound should appear

All Speech Sounds

Guides for every sound we cover

Related Sounds

/SH/

SH Sound

View guide

/J/

J Sound

View guide

/Z/

Z Sound

View guide

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