this year
/ˈðɪʃɪr/
RP: /ˈðɪʃɪə/
Meaning: this year
s+y → /ʃ/
Mistake: Pronouncing "this" and "year" as two separate words with a clear s sound: "DISU YIA".
Why: Katakana English keeps the s of "this" intact and doesn't merge it with the following glide, since Japanese has no equivalent s+y coalescence rule.
Fix: Merge the s of "this" with the y of "year" into a single [ʃ] sound: [ˈðɪʃɪr] (GA) or [ˈðɪʃɪə] (RP). Say it as "thi-sheer", one smooth word with no separate y glide audible.
Mistake: Keeping the final s of "this" as a clear [s] before pronouncing "year" with its own initial [j] glide.
Why: Korean doesn't have the same s+y → [ʃ] coalescence process, so the two sounds are naturally kept phonetically distinct in transfer from the native language.
Fix: Fuse s + y into [ʃ]: [ˈðɪʃɪr]. This is the same process that turns "miss you" into "mishoo" — a very common feature of fast, natural English that's worth internalizing as a single automatic rule.
Mistake: Producing "this" and "year" with clearly separate onsets, since Mandarin phonology has both [s] and [j]-like sounds but doesn't coalesce them across syllable boundaries this way.
Why: Mandarin syllable structure keeps initials distinct from what follows in the next syllable, so learners don't expect two adjacent words to merge their consonants.
Fix: Let the final s of "this" and the initial y of "year" blend into one palatal sound [ʃ]: [ˈðɪʃɪr]. Practice minimal pairs like "this year" vs. "the sheer" to hear how naturally the coalescence resembles an existing English sound.
"This year" is a compact demonstration of coronal assimilation, where the alveolar fricative s at the end of "this" merges with the palatal glide y at the start of "year" to produce a single postalveolar fricative, [ʃ]. The result, [ˈðɪʃɪr] in GA or [ˈðɪʃɪə] in RP (non-rhotic, with the diphthong-like ending typical of British "year"), sounds almost like the word "dish" fused onto "ear". This same s+y coalescence appears throughout English whenever a word ending in s meets a word beginning with y — "miss you", "bless you", and "this year" are all governed by the identical rule. Because "this year" is such a common time expression in everyday conversation, spanning talk about plans, reviews, and comparisons, learners who master the coalescence here gain an immediately transferable skill for a whole family of s+y phrases they'll encounter constantly in natural speech.