Return to course: American Accent Course

American Accent Course

Single Letter Sounds

The 'R', 'V', and 'J' Sounds

'R', 'V', and 'J' Sounds Quiz

Multi-letter Sounds

Consonant Clusters - ‘Th’, ‘Thr’, ‘Sts’, ‘Sks’, and ‘Sps’

The Three ‘Ch’ Sounds - /Tch/, /Sh/, /K/

The Four ‘Ice’ Sounds - /ice/, /is/, /ees/, /ois/

The ‘Tu’, ‘Du’, and ‘Su’ Sounds

Vowel Pronunciation

The Best Vowel Pronunciation Trick

The ‘Ed’ Sound - Pronouncing Past Tense Verbs

Speaking Clearly and Quickly

Stop Consonant Reduction

Silent Letters

Using Stress In Words

American Vocabulary

American Slang

Phrasal Verbs

‘S’ Sounds Quiz

What is a voiced sound? *

A sound spoken at a much louder volume

A sound that seems less friendly and more impolite

A sound that is created by vibrating your mouth and vocal cords

A sound that requires no vibration of your mouth and vocal cords

If a word begins with the letter ‘S’, will the ‘S’ be voiced or unvoiced? *

Unvoiced

Voiced

How can we determine if an ‘S’ is silent? *

If an ‘S’ appears after the letter ‘R’, it will always be silent.

There is no rule to explain if a word has a silent ‘S’ – it can only be learned by memorizing the few words with a silent ‘S’.

If an ‘S’ appears after the letter ‘I’, it will always be silent.

To identify if an ‘S’ is silent, see if it is used as the sixth letter of the word.

What ‘S’ pronunciation is used for the word “Sauce”, “Sky”, and “Stand”? *

Voiced ‘S’

Unvoiced ‘S’

Silent ‘S’

‘Sh’ Pronunciation

If a word contains an ‘S’ in the middle, will the ‘S’ usually be voiced or unvoiced? *

Usually voiced

Usually unvoiced

If ‘S’ appears at the end of a word, how can we determine if it’s voiced or unvoiced? *

There is no reliable rule to help here.

If the sound before the ‘s’ is a voiced consonant, the ‘s’ will also usually be voiced.

If the sound before the ‘s’ is a voiced consonant, the ‘s’ will usually be unvoiced.

If the sound after the ‘s’ is an unvoiced consonant, the ‘s’ will always be unvoiced.

Is the word “Fission” pronounced with an unvoiced /Sh/ or voiced /Zh/? *

Voiced /Zh/

Unvoiced /Sh/

What pronunciation is used for the letter ‘S’ in “Island”? *

Voiced ‘S’

Unvoiced ‘S’

Silent ‘S’

‘Sh’ pronunciation