Ship Isn't Sip: Greek's Missing SH Sound

You've probably already discovered that your Greek θ and δ give you a head start on English TH — but 'sh,' as in 'ship,' 'wash,' and 'she,' is a genuine gap, since Greek has no separate category for it. Without a native match, Greek speakers often default to a plain 's,' which can turn 'ship' into 'sip' and quietly shift the meaning of a sentence. To produce the real sound, start from your 's,' then pull your tongue tip back just slightly and round your lips a touch forward, as though softly shushing someone. Try this for two minutes with the pairs 'sip/ship,' 'sue/shoe,' and 'class/clash,' going slowly and exaggerating the lip rounding on the second word in each pair until the contrast feels clear and automatic. This sound shows up constantly in everyday English, so training your mouth to find it reliably — even in just a few focused minutes today — will make a noticeable difference in how clearly you're understood.