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 affricate
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').
