Minimal Pair List Consonants /ʃ/ versus /j/, 41 pairs

The /ʃ/ sound is spelled with <sh> and <ch> in chaise . The /j/ sound is spelled with <y> and occurs in the letter name U .

This is a contrast between a voiceless alveolar fricative and a voiced palatal semivowel. It can only occur initially or medially. It is not a problem.

The mean density value is 0.6%. The lists make 23 semantic distinctions, a loading of 57%.

chaise yeas
shack yak
  shacks yaks
shah yah
sham yam
  shams yams
shank yank 
  shanks yanks 
  shanked yanked
  shanking yanking
shard yard
  shards yards
shawl yawl
  shawls yawls
she ye
shear year
  shears years
sheer year
shell yell
  shelled yelled
  shelling yelling
  shells yells
shield yield
  shielded yielded
  shielding yielding
  shields yields
Shirley yearly
shoe U 
  shoes U's 
shone yon
shore yaw
  shores yaws
  shored yawed
shore yore
shores yours
shorn yawn
shot yacht
  shots yachts
Shotts yachts
showman yeoman
sure your

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John Higgins

John Higgins retired in 2000, having spent the bulk of his career as a British Council English Language Officer working in Thailand, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia and the last fifteen years in lectureships at Bristol University and then running an M.Sc. programme at Stirling University. His main field was EFL, with a special interest in CALL (computer-assisted language learning) in which, together with Tim Johns of Birmingham, he was responsible for important developments in methods and materials. His publications include A Guide to Language Laboratory Material Writing, Universitetesforlaget, 1969, Computers and Language Learning, Collins, 1984, Language Learners and Computers, Longman, 1988, and Computers in English Language Learning, Intellect Press, 1992, together with numerous papers, reviews and pieces of software. He maintains a web page on minimal pairs and homographs for teachers of English pronunciation skills.