The /j/ sound in English
/j/ is the Y sound (yod) — a consonant of English. Here is how to make it with your mouth, what usually goes wrong, which words carry it, and the sounds it gets confused with.
How to make the /j/ sound
Raise the front of the tongue high toward the hard palate as if starting /iː/, then glide straight into the following vowel.
Practise it on its own before you put it in a word: hold the position, make the sound, then release. Once it is stable in isolation, drop it into the example words below and keep the same mouth shape — most of the difficulty of an English sound disappears the moment your tongue and lips are physically in the right place.
The mistake learners make with /j/
Hardening it into /dʒ/ so "year" sounds like "jeer"; it is a smooth glide with no contact.
If that description sounds like you, work through the contrast pairs further down: hearing the difference reliably always comes before producing it reliably.
Words with the /j/ sound
Start with the classic three — yes, onion, music — then work through real words that contain /j/. Every word below has a full pronunciation page with audio and a sound-by-sound breakdown.
/j/ versus the sounds it gets confused with
These are the sounds that sit closest to /j/ in the mouth, and the ones that swallow it when a learner is not careful. Learn each pair as a pair:
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dʒThe voiced twin of /tʃ/: stop the air with the tongue at the ridge and release it into a voiced /ʒ/ buzz. Say “yes” (/j/) and “jump” (/dʒ/) back to back until the two stop blurring together.
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iːSpread the lips into a smile, push the front of the tongue high and forward, and hold the sound tense and long. Say “yes” (/j/) and “see” (/iː/) back to back until the two stop blurring together.
Questions about /j/
- How do you pronounce the /j/ sound?
- Raise the front of the tongue high toward the hard palate as if starting /iː/, then glide straight into the following vowel.
- What words have the /j/ sound?
- yes, onion, music, you, your, use, view, year, used — all contain /j/.
- What is /j/ called?
- /j/ is the Y sound (yod). It is a consonant in the English sound system.
Stop looking words up one at a time
One sound at a time is slow. PHONO puts the IPA above every word of whatever you are reading — in your browser, in a PDF, in any app — the moment you select it. An offline pronunciation dictionary, US and UK audio, one hotkey.