Measure Has a Secret Buzz

Hidden in the middle of some fairly common English words — 'measure,' 'vision,' 'usually,' 'decision' — is a sound that doesn't exist in Thai: a smooth, continuous, buzzy sound made with your voice humming through a narrow gap, similar to 'sh' but with your vocal cords switched on. Without a native match, Thai speakers sometimes replace it with a plain 's', 'sh', or even skip the buzz entirely, which can blur these words together with simpler ones. To find it, start by saying a long 'sh-sh-sh' sound, then turn on your voice partway through without moving your tongue — you should feel a hum underneath the hiss. Try this for two minutes with 'measure, pleasure, vision, usually,' going slowly and checking for that steady vibration. This particular sound is genuinely rare across English's vocabulary, so you won't need it constantly — but getting it right in these specific words will make your pronunciation sound polished and precise.