Affricates are consonants that are said with a stop with a fricative immediately afterwards. For example, the 'ch' sound in English (written as /t͡ʃ/ in IPA) is said with an 't' (/t/) sound with an 'sh' (/ʃ/) sound immediately afterwards. Both voiced and voiceless affricates exist; in English, they are /d͡ʒ/ (the 'j' sound) and t͡ʃ (the 'ch' sound) respectively.
Affricates in English
Voicing
IPA
Often written as letter(s)...
Sample word in English
Sample word in IPA
Voiceless affricate
t͡ʃ
ch
chew
/t͡ʃu/
Voiced
d͡ʒ
j
Jew
/d͡ʒu/
In Mandarin Chinese, affricates are told apart by aspiration, or breathiness, since voiced affricates do not exist; aspirated affricates, or breathy affricates, are /t͡ɕʰ/ (written as 'q' in Hanyu Pinyin), /t͡sʰ/ ('c'), and /ʈ͡ʂʰ/ ('ch'), and unaspirated affricates, or non-breathy affricates, are /t͡ɕ/ ('j'), /t͡s/ ('z'), and /ʈ͡ʂ/ ('zh').
