Is this typical?
Do most native Spanish speakers have a problem with pronouncing the "sh" in words like "show" for example? I noticed today that my husband and his cousin seem to change "sh" to "ch" in many words and I was just wondering if many Spanish speaking people who do not speak english fluently did this.
1 Answer
This article had some interesting info on this problem and other pronunciation problems commonly faced by Spanish speakers of English and it also has some suggestions on how to overcome the problems.
Here's an excerpt:
Many Spanish speakers do not properly say the sh sound, and will replace it with the ch sound. Like the v sound, the sh sound is a fricative. The air needs to leave the mouth smoothly, but with friction. The ch sound has a stop at the beginning of it. The air is held inside the mouth in the same position as the t sound, then let go with the same friction of the sh sound. I know this is confusing. Basically the ch sound is the combination of a t sound plus an sh sound. Listen to the difference between these two sounds. sh sound (sh sound) ch sound (ch sound). Can you hear the difference? Listen to episode 17 for more information on the sh sound. I haven't created an episode for the ch sound yet, but you can still practice the sound list for that sound.
