/ʒ/ — the ZH sound as in vision, measure, beige

Main spellings (~90%)

⟨si⟩ ~55%

The most common spelling, found in -sion endings.

vision decision television confusion occasion explosion

-sion after a vowel: When -sion comes after a vowel (vision, decision, occasion), it's usually /ʒən/. When -sion comes after a consonant (tension, mansion), it's /ʃən/. Compare: decision (/ʒ/) vs tension (/ʃ/).

⟨s⟩ ~35%

Before ⟨u⟩ in the middle of words, ⟨s⟩ often makes /ʒ/.

measure pleasure treasure leisure usual casual visual

S + U pattern: In words like measure, pleasure, usual, the ⟨s⟩ before ⟨u⟩ makes /ʒ/. This happens when the ⟨u⟩ follows the pattern of sounding like "yoo" or "oo" (not a separate syllable).

Unusual spellings (~10%)

⟨ge⟩

In words from French, word-final ⟨ge⟩ makes /ʒ/.

beige garage rouge massage prestige mirage

French -ge endings: Words ending in -ge that come from French often pronounce the ⟨g⟩ as /ʒ/: beige, garage, rouge, prestige, mirage. Compare with native English words where -ge is /ʤ/: age, page, stage.

⟨g⟩

In a few French words, ⟨g⟩ alone makes /ʒ/.

genre regime

Genre: This common word is pronounced /ˈʒɑnrə/ — the ⟨g⟩ makes /ʒ/, not /ʤ/ or /g/.

⟨z⟩

Very rare — only in a handful of words.

azure

A rare sound

Never word-initial: In native English words, /ʒ/ never appears at the beginning. The only exceptions are recent French loans like "genre" /ˈʒɑnrə/. If you see ⟨zh⟩ at the start of a word, it's probably a foreign name (like Zheng or Zhukov).

/ʒ/ vs /ʃ/

Don't confuse /ʒ/ with /ʃ/! These are the same mouth position, but /ʒ/ is voiced (vocal cords vibrate) and /ʃ/ is voiceless. Compare: vision (/ʒ/) vs mission (/ʃ/). /ʒ/ is much rarer than /ʃ/.

/ʒ/ vs /ʤ/

Don't confuse /ʒ/ with /ʤ/! The /ʒ/ sound is a pure fricative (continuous airflow), while /ʤ/ (as in "judge") starts with a stop. In most French loanwords, ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e/i⟩ is /ʒ/ (beige, regime), not /ʤ/.