Pronounciation of r and z, th and d in formal british english?

Question

English is my second language,

according to some dictionaries like the Cambridge and the Collins,
i have learnt that the r sound is pronounced only before a vowel.
here i have an example but i do not know whether it is pronounced, please help by answering how the letter "R"s being quoted is pronounced in British and American English respectively.

1.A. The bus station is five hundred met"r"es away.
B. The bus station is only one met"r"e away.

also, i am confused on how to pronounce the letter "s" in English.
In what case is it pronounced as "z" and when is it pronounced as "s" respectively in British and American English?

as a non- native speaker, i cannot distinguish the difference between the voice between the "th" in the word thirsty and the word "f" in the word five and between the "th" in the word "the" and "d" in the word dog. (except i know the positions of the tongue are varied)
as native speakers, are you always able to feel the difference just by hearing?

Answer 1

The type of English you are referring to is "Received Pronunciation". In you examples, the "r" is not pronounced. It sounds like "meet-uh" or "meet-urs".
In Received Pronunciation, "s" is pronounced "sh" when followed by a "u", as in "sugar" or "sure". It is always pronounced as a "z" in words which end in "-ised", such as "globalised" or "industrialised". If a word has "ce" in it (as in "hence" or "rice"), it is pronouned as an "s". When it ends a word, it is pronounced as a "z", as in "please", "as" or "dictionaries".
For all the rules I just gave you, there will be many exceptions, however, it should give you a good guide.
Good Luck!

Answer 2

Wow! Lots of questions! With the letter 'r' the examples you have quoted are the exception to the rule. Generally speaking the letter 'r' is pronounced the same way in all cases whether British or American English. For example, 'run', 'rope', 'report' etc. The examples you've quoted (metre, metres) I believe originate from France so to pronounce these words, just think of the 'r' and 'e' being round the other way. So they sound like 'meter 'and 'meters'.

Generally speaking the letter 's' is only pronounced like 'z' when it is the last letter of a plural word such as 'words', 'temperatures' etc. but there are some exceptions to this. Same applies in Britain and the US although Americans sometimes make the 's' sound like 'z' in some other cases.

I'm not sure if I can help you with the last problem though! Your right regarding the position of the tongue but I don't know how to explain the difference in the sound. All I can say is that we can distinguish the difference.

I would also like to say that you seem to be a bit of a perfectionist. I meant that in a nice way! Judging by the way you have worded your question, I'm sure you would be clearly understood both in Britain and the US.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Answer 3

Generally speaking, 'r' is always heard, but it may be included as part of a long vowel sound, eg ar (car), er ( her), ir (bird), or (born), ur (turn). The word 'metre' is pronounced 'mee-t-er' so 'r' is sounded as part of the long vowel sound 'er'. The actual pure sound of 'r' is similar to a growl - it is made using teeth and a curled tongue and is voiced.

'S' is usually sounded as 'sssss', like a snake, when at the beginning of words, but when used in certain combinations (ise,) and at the end of a word, it frequently sounds as 'z'. If you aim to use the 'sss' sound you will be understood and in time you will find that you automatically change the sound to 'z' because of the letter combinations.

Working with children in the SE of England, I can assure you that many native speakers cannot differentiate between 'th' and 'f' either! 'Th' is formed by use of the tongue and teeth, whereas 'f' is formed with teeth and lips, 'th' can be voiced or unvoiced but 'f' is always unvoiced.

Similarly, many native speakers also use 'd' (teeth and tongue, voiced) where they should use 'th' (voiced version). In fact, many advertising devices etc, use this vocalisation in their presentation,eg. der cat is on der mat.

The best way to learn to speak any language is to listen to it first - how did you learn to speak your own language as a baby, you listened and repeated and joined in as you felt able - you didn't read and write it at the same time, did you?

English is a very difficult language to learn because it is eclectic - made up of many different languages over time. There are so many exceptions to prove each rule that it often seems that there are no rules! Good luck!

Answer 4

R as in Remember, is pronounced Rrrrrre. R as in Art is only aR-t E is pronounced Eeeeee (natural phonetic) if placed with another vowel it is still the same, as in Eeeeat. S in english is pronounced ESS as in mESS, S as in SUGAR (correct spelling) is pronounced SHhhugar..! REALISE.---- REALIZATION. Z is ZED. Zebra is ZEeeebra, or ZEBRA.(ZEB) I have come across TH many times in my classes, THEME -- (correct spelling) is THeeeme,. togeTHer is TH. only. F is pronounced eF as in eFFort, F as in Five is FIve The bus station question you mentioned in your text is a silent R. metRre as in metre. Metre is-- SINGULAR and Metres -- PLURAL. Yes we can tell the difference by listening ,you need a language book and dvd or cassette tape like the Life Line English Courses.this way you can do listen / drill / repeat / exercises.