If you want more information on the photos in this video, which have parts of the mouth drawn in, see this video on the parts of the mouth.

How to make this sound:

Video Text:

The 'ee' as in 'she' vowel sound. This is a front vowel, so it feels like the sound comes from this part of the face, ee, that also means that it's the front part of the tongue that's doing the work. The front-mid part of the tongue raises towards the front-mid part of the roof of the mouth, ee, about here. It doesn't touch but it does raise very high. Ee. The tip of the tongue, however, is still down touching behind the bottom of the front teeth. Ee. And you can see that the lips pull wide, ee, in the corners. Here is a photo of the 'ee' as in 'she' vowel sound on the right, compared with the mouth at rest on the left. Notice that the corners of the mouth are pulled slightly back in this ee sound. And here with the inside parts drawn in. As with all vowels, the soft palate is raised, but more importantly, note the tongue. It's raised very high in the mid-front, though not quite touching the roof of the mouth. The tip of the tongue lightly touches the back of the bottom front teeth.

Sample words: please, ski, even. Sample sentence: She needs to see there's a reason to believe me. Now we'll see this sentence close up and in slow motion, straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how this sound is made.

She, S-H sh [], and the ee. Needs, see how much further the corners of the lips pull back, needs, as it is more stressed than she. To see, again, the corners of the mouth are pulled back. There's, the tongue comes through the teeth, a reason, again the 'ee' as in 'she'" rr ee son. To believe, lip comes up to make the V, me. And now from the angle. She, sh here, she, needs, tongue goes up to make the N. And watch the corners of the mouth really pull back. Needs. To, t-uh here. See, teeth come together to make the S, see. There's tongue comes through the teeth. A reason, lips form the R [], re-, corners pull back, re-son. To believe. Lips together for the B, tongue up to make the L and the corners of the lips pull back for the ee. Lip moves up to make the V. Me, corners pull back again for the ee sound.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: []

See Wikipedia's page for the occurrences of this sound in other languages.

Miss the old sound video? See it here.