An affricate is a consonant sound made in two tiny steps that feel like one beat. First you stop the air completely, as you do for /t/ or /d/. Then, in the same part of the mouth, you let it out through a narrow gap so it hisses or buzzes, as in /ʃ/ or /ʒ/. English learners meet two of these all the time: /tʃ/ in church, chip, watch, and /dʒ/ in judge, jam, age. You do not need the name affricate to speak English, but you will meet it in a pronunciation class. Though actually, an affricate is not “a /t/ plus a /ʃ/ said slowly.” If you leave a little hole between the two halves, you have two sounds. In church the two halves are glued; it is one sound. Mandarin already has several sounds of this kind (the ones written ㄐ、ㄑ、ㄓ、ㄔ、ㄗ、ㄘ), so the idea is less foreign than the English label looks. Teachers also talk about a matching verb, to affricate, but almost only other linguists ever need it.

塞擦音