Fricative consonant facts for kids

A fricative consonant is a special kind of consonant sound that you make by squeezing air through a small gap in your mouth. Think of it like air hissing through a tiny hole! For example, when you use the gaps between your teeth to make sounds, those are often fricatives. If these sounds have a strong, hissing quality, like the 's' in "sip" or the 'z' in "zip", they are called sibilants.

English has many fricative sounds. Some are voiceless, meaning your vocal cords don't vibrate when you make the sound (like the 'f' in "fan" or the 's' in "sun"). Others are voiced, meaning your vocal cords vibrate (like the 'v' in "van" or the 'z' in "zoo").

How Fricatives Are Made

To make a fricative sound, you bring two parts of your mouth very close together, but not quite touching. This creates a narrow opening. Then, you push air through that opening, causing a noisy, turbulent airflow. This is the "friction" that gives fricatives their name!

Voiced and Voiceless Fricatives

You can feel the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds.

• For voiceless fricatives, like the 's' in "sip" or the 'f' in "fan", try putting your hand on your throat. You won't feel any vibration from your vocal cords.
• For voiced fricatives, like the 'z' in "zip" or the 'v' in "van", put your hand on your throat again. You should feel a buzzing or vibration. This means your vocal cords are working!

Sibilant Fricatives: The Hissing Sounds

Sibilant fricatives are a type of fricative that have a very clear, hissing or buzzing sound. They are often made by directing air over the edge of your teeth.

Here are some examples of sibilant sounds you might know from English:

• The 's' sound in sip (this is a voiceless sibilant).
• The 'z' sound in zip (this is a voiced sibilant).
• The 'sh' sound in ship (this is a voiceless sibilant).
• The 's' sound in vision (this is a voiced sibilant, like the 'zh' sound).

Other Fricative Sounds

Not all fricatives are sibilants. Many other fricative sounds are made in different parts of your mouth without that strong hissing quality.

Here are a few examples from English:

• The 'f' sound in fine (this is a voiceless fricative made with your lips and teeth).
• The 'v' sound in vine (this is a voiced fricative made with your lips and teeth).
• The 'th' sound in thing (this is a voiceless fricative made with your tongue and teeth).
• The 'th' sound in that (this is a voiced fricative made with your tongue and teeth).

Some languages have many more types of fricatives, made using different parts of the mouth like the back of the tongue, the throat, or even the very back of the mouth near the vocal cords!

Pseudo-fricatives

Sometimes, sounds that seem like fricatives aren't truly made with the same kind of "friction." For example, the 'h' sound in English words like hat is often called a "glottal fricative." However, in English, it's more like a breathy vowel sound where your vocal cords are open, rather than air being squeezed through a tiny gap.

But in other languages, like Arabic, the 'h' sound can be a true fricative, made with real friction in the throat!

See also

In Spanish: Consonante fricativa para niños