"Η αράχνη είναι ένα ζώο."

[AliceVantas]

The word for spider did not appear in the tips & notes.

[Loeffer]

Doesn't this ζ sound more like a zho than a zo to you? I'm feeling its sound is no flat z, but something that resembles a bit a j or a sh sometimes. Am I nuts?

Not sure if i asked this before, if so, sorry.

[mizinamo]

Greek doesn't have "zh" as a separate sound from "z" the way English does, nor "sh" as a separate sound from "s".

This means that Greeks don't have to be as careful to keep the two sounds apart, and if a "s" or "z" sound slides a bit in the direction of "sh" or "zh", it can't be confused with any other sound -- and indeed, you may hear Greeks pronouncing "s" or "z" somewhere between "s" and "sh", or between "z" and "zh", so that it might sound a bit like "sh" and "zh" to English ears who are used to making the distinction.

For learners, I would recommend not trying to imitate this in-between pronunciation, and especially not to use a full-blown English "sh" or "zh" sound, but to stick with the English "s" and "z" sounds when trying to make the Greek "s" and "z" sounds.

But it's good to get used to hearing the variety of pronunciations Greeks have for these sounds.

[starry1086]

The recorded voice sounds very sad to me (on all sentences)...am I alone in thinking this?

[G.Georgopoulos]

Well, for one thing, she's talking about spiders xD

[Phil682961]

The voice on this sentence sounds very very determined to leave no one in any doubt that a spider is an animal :-)