The ‘S’ Sounds
Lesson Goals:
- Review the concept of Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds.
- Learn and practice the difference between the Voiced ‘S’ and Unvoiced ‘S’
- Identify when the letter ‘S’ will be voiced or unvoiced in a word
- ‘S’ at the beginning of a word
- ‘S’ in the middle of a word
- ‘S’ at the end of a word
- Identify when the letter ‘S’ is pronounced /Sh/ or /Zh/
- Identify words where the letter ‘S’ is used silently.
Introduction
Learning the American accent can be difficult, especially when we start using multiple different pronunciations for a single letter. Today, we’re going to look at the letter ‘S’, which has 5 pronunciations that you should master to speak like an American.
Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds
To start, we need to understand the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds. If you watched the previous lesson, this will be a quick review for you.
Voiced sounds create a vibration in your mouth and vocal cords. This vibration makes the sound stronger and deeper. Unvoiced sounds, on the other hand, create no vibration, and usually sound softer or higher pitch. For a few easy-to-remember sounds, here’s a tip: Every vowel sound is voiced. So if a sound vibrates your throat like a vowel, it’s voiced.
Every sound in English is either voiced or unvoiced, and you can determine which category a sound is in by touching your throat as you make the sound. If you feel a vibration, it’s a voiced sound.
Voiced and Unvoiced ‘S’
But, some letters can be voiced in certain words, and unvoiced in other words. That brings us to the topic of today’s lesson – the letter ‘S’.
In some words, like “Bikes”, the ‘s’ is unvoiced, creating a ‘sss’ sound. The unvoiced ‘s’ sound is like the sound a snake creates. Notice how soft this sound is, and how it feels like it’s coming from the front of your mouth.
In other words, like “Cars”, the ‘s’ is voiced, creating a ‘zzz’ sound. This voiced sound, on the other hand, is like the sound a bee might make. Notice how the voiced ‘S’ sounds a bit deeper and lower pitched, and how it feels like it’s coming from your lower throat.
Let’s look at other examples of words with the voiced ‘S’:
- Strikes
- Safes
- Less
- Listen
- Sock
Now, let’s hear some words with a voiced ‘S. Remember, in these words the ‘S’ will create a ‘Z’ sound’:
- Friends
- Homes
- Movies
- Planes
- Noise
Let’s see if you understand. Listen to the next three words, and decide which one sounds voiced to you.
- Mikes
- Gives
- Stress
So, those are our first two pronunciations for the letter ‘S’ – voiced, and unvoiced. Now, let’s go through every spot in a word where ‘S’ might appear, and how that affects its pronunciation.
‘S’ At The Beginning of a Word
Any time the letter ‘S’ appears as the first letter of a word, it will use the unvoiced ‘S’ sound. Many times, I’ve noticed making a mistake with ‘S’ at the beginning of a word, so just remember that it’s always going to be unvoiced, creating an /s/ sound. The only exception would be in words where the letter after the ‘s’ is an ‘h’, creating a /shh/ sound. But, this will still be unvoiced.
Here are some examples:
- Sauce
- Sky
- Slim
- Stuck
- Shirt
- Shell
And, let’s practice a couple sentences with ‘S’ at the beginning of words:
- Sally saw her surprise early.
- The sauce was stuck to my spoon.
For any Spanish speakers out there, be careful not to add an ‘e’ before words starting with ‘s’. I commonly hear Spanish speaking ESL students say “especific” instead of “specific”, for example, so that’s something you must be careful of. There are some words that have an ‘es’ sound, like “especially”, but the ‘e’ will be written – so you’ll know to pronounce it.
‘S’ In the Middle of a Word
Similarly, when the letter ‘S’ is used in the middle of a word, it will almost always be unvoiced, creating the ‘sss’ sound.
- Master
- Inside
- Plastic
There are a few examples of words with a voiced ‘S’ in the middle, but they’re not common. Some examples would include:
- Grisly
- Berserk
- Jersey
There’s no trick to explain which words have a voiced ‘S’ in the middle, so you can only learn by hearing them and practicing.
‘S’ at the end of a word
When ‘S’ appears at the end of a word, it can get a bit tricky. So, let’s look at a guideline you can often use to identify if an ‘S’ should be voiced or unvoiced when it appears as the final letter.
Listen to these words:
- Safes
- Saves
They’re almost identical, except for one letter difference. In the first word, the sound before the ‘S’ is the letter ‘F’, which is unvoiced. In the second word, we replace the ‘F’ with a ‘V’, which is voiced.
With this example, we can understand that the sound before the ‘S’ influences whether it’s voiced or not. Usually, if the sound before the ‘S’ is a voiced consonant, the ‘S’ will also be voiced. In the word “Saves”, the sound before the ‘s’ is a ‘v’ – so, both are voiced.
And, the opposite is true – if the sound before the ‘S’ is an unvoiced consonant or a vowel, the ‘S’ will usually be unvoiced. For example, “Safes”. An ‘f’ is the sound before the ‘s’, so both are unvoiced.
This rule doesn’t always apply, because in the English language, there’s exceptions to everything. But, it’ll help.
In the word “Gives”, the sound before the ‘S’ is a voiced ‘V’, since the ‘E’ is silent. Because of this, the ‘S’ is also voiced.
But in the word “Socks”, the sound before the ‘S’ is an unvoiced ‘K’. So, the ‘S’ is also unvoiced. Also remember that, when a word begins with ‘S’, the ‘S’ will be unvoiced, which is why it’s pronounced “Socks”.
Here are some examples of each:
Unvoiced:
- Virus
- Fungus
- Remember: Even though vowels are voiced, the ‘S’ after them is usually unvoiced.
- Famous
- Stasis
Voiced:
- Selves
- Times
- Jones
- Wives
Now, let’s see some sentences with both sounds:
- Jones had a crisis when the fungus started to grow.
- How many times did the wives become famous?
As a side note – I’ve noticed with many of our English students that the ‘s’ sound when making a word plural is often skipped by accident. So, be very careful not to make the same mistake, and if you do, correct yourself out loud to build the habit.
‘S’ pronounced ‘Sh’ or ‘Zh’
Now, it’s time to look at a different pronunciation for the letter ‘S’.
In some words, a single ‘S’ can be pronounced /Sh/, even if it’s not used with the letter ‘H’. This is caused by ‘S’ being used in several specific suffixes.
For example, in the word “Compulsion”, the ‘S’ is part of the suffix ‘Sion’, which is always pronounced with an unvoiced “Shun”, or a voiced “Zhun”.
In the words…
- Emulsion
- Obsession
- Expansion
We have an unvoiced ‘Sion’. In other words, usually words that have a vowel before the suffix, we will use the voiced “Zhun”.
- Diffusion
- Inclusion
- Confusion
The same concept applies to the suffix ‘Sure’. It can be voiced or unvoiced, depending on the letters before the suffix, but we will always include an ‘h’ sound.
Unvoiced ‘Sure’ words would include:
- Pressure
- Assure
- Insure
Whereas voiced ‘Sure’ words, which have a vowel before the suffix, could be:
- Measure
- Leisure
- Exposure
The Silent ‘S’
Finally, let’s look at our last pronunciation of ‘S’ – Which actually requires no pronunciation at all.
In some specific words, the ‘S’ is completely silent. Some common examples of this might include:
- Island
- Aisle
- Debris
But, there are very few words with this pronunciation, so there’s no rule to explain when
‘S’ should be silent or not – It’s just a matter of memorizing those few words and their correct pronunciation.
Silent letters are something we’ll discuss more in a later lesson, but for now, that finishes the different pronunciations of the letter ‘S’.
Review
Now that we’ve covered all of the different pronunciations of the letter ‘S’, let’s do a quick review.
The letter ‘S’ can either be voiced, creating a ‘Zzz’ sound, or unvoiced, creating a ‘Sss’ sound.
If the letter ‘S’ is used to start a word, it will be unvoiced.
- Sauce
- Sky
If the letter ‘S’ is used in the middle of a word, it will usually be unvoiced, but there are a few exceptions.
- Master
- Inside
If the letter ‘S’ is used at the end of a word, it can be voiced or unvoiced. To decide, look at the letters before the ‘S’. If the sound before the ‘S’ is a voiced consonant, the ‘S’ will usually be voiced. If it’s an unvoiced consonant, the ‘S’ will usually be unvoiced. And if it’s a vowel, the ‘S’ will also usually be unvoiced.
- Safes
- Saves
In some words, ‘S’ can be pronounced /Sh/ or /Zh/. This occurs if the word contains the letters ‘Sh’ next to each other, or if ‘S’ is used in a specific suffix, such as ‘Sion’ or ‘Sure’. In these suffixes, the /Zh/ pronunciation will be used if the suffix is preceded by a vowel. Otherwise, the /Sh pronunciation will usually be used.
- Pressure
- Leisure
And, it might be rare, but there are a few words with a completely silent ‘S’
- Island
- Debris
Outro
Now that we’ve gone through all those different pronunciations, make sure you focus on the letter ‘S’ when listening to English sentences and practice identifying if it’s voiced, unvoiced, or using any of the other sounds we learned today.
It might take some time to master the different pronunciations, but as long as you can hear and identify the differences in how ‘S’ is pronounced, you’re on the right track.
I hope you enjoyed the lesson, and we’ll see you in the next one!