question on how to pronounce the Letter "S" in english?

Question

when i check the pronunciation of words in dictionaries , the letter "S" behaves so strangely that it is often pronounced as "Z".
for example, it is pronounced as "Z" in the words "because" and "please" , "cause", "is", "was", etc
for "course", "class", it is "S".

are there any general rules on determining in what cases it is going to be "Z" ?

if possible, please give me some rules on when to pronounce it as "Z" when the letter is used to represent plural.

Answer 1

Well I always find the z sound different than the s sound. And cause, is, was all are different than cauze, iz, and waz.

Answer 2

There are no set rules about this, unfortunately. It is a case of learning and remembering for each word. English is made up of words that have their roots in many different languages, and this means it is full of irregularities between spelling and pronunciation- for example, 'enough' is pronounced 'enuff' but 'though', despite ending with the same letters, is pronounced 'tho'.
I gave a link in another answer to you about the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and this is really the only way (other than asking someone!) to get the correct pronounciation of English words. There is a symbol in the IPA for the 'z' sound of an s, and also for the hissing 's' sound of an s, and the phonetic spelling after a word's entry in the dictionary will tell you which one is right. It really is a case of learning and remembering. Again, good luck!

Answer 3

That is such a difficult question to answer.

When you want to add an S to a word that ends in a vowel, or in the consonants not listed below, it's like a Z
When a word ends in a C, F, K, P, T, +s it's like an S
I can't think of any exceptions to this rule.

At the start of a word, it's always S
In the middle of a word it seems to depend on whether the S is at the start or end of a syllable. If it's at the start, it's an S, if it's at the end, the rules above apply.

But this is only a generalisation, and there's bound to be someone who comes up with a word that doesn't follow this pattern.
English is a very complicated language!

Answer 4

The problem with English is that it is a language derived from many other roots, and therefore doesn't really have any rules in pronunciation. The best advice I can give is when learning a new word, look at the phonetic pronunciation in the dictionary to guide you.

Answer 5

When "s" is followed by "e" at the end of a word, it is normally pronounced "z". e.g. surprise, arise, choose, disguise, etc.

When it is used to indicate a plural or a third person singular word, it is pronounced "z". e.g. sees, cries, flies, eyes, trees, etc.

However, when the singular word ends in a "k" "f" or a "t" sound, the plural s is pronounced "s". e.g. cakes, looks, makes, takes, speaks, rabbits, lights, nights, ruffs, cuffs. etc.

These are the rules as far as I can make them out. I don't know why people think that English is an easy language!

Answer 6

yeah, basically, I can think of no hard and fast rules...English is a language of rules and exceptions to rules. It doesn't help that we didn't even have a standard way of spelling (in England OR the US) until the 1800's.

Here's a site that gives a little quiz and seems to attempt some rules, though...hope it helps.

http://www.english-zone.com/convo/pron-s1.html

Oh, and watch out for spelling differences between US and UK English (patronize, patronise, favorite, favourite)--those sound the same--and words that are spelled the same but sound different...schedule (pronounced 'shedule' in UK, 'skedule' in US) or advertisement (adVERtizmint = UK, adverTEYEZmint = US). Just goes to show...half the time WE don't even know what we're talking about.

Good luck!

Answer 7

It's pronounced as a 'z' after certain sounds, though not specifically spelling. These are the 'voiced' sounds in English and include:
d as in cards
b as in cabs
g as in bags
v as in wolves
(hard) th as in clothes


after sh, tsh, s and z there is an extra syllable 'Iz"
as in: clashes, watches, places and mazes.

This is not the whole story, but I hope it helps. Basically it's about the sound before the final 's'.

Answer 8

I would not worry too much about the letter 'S' . It will not matter if you don't pronounce it 'z' in words like please, most foreign people don't pronounce it 'z' in the word please and they get on fine.

Stuff like this should and will only really be learnt by hanging out and socialising with friendly english people and over time you will pick up the way english people say words.

Be warned however accents vary greatly over the UK, stay below/south of birmingham for what is internatioanlly recognised english.

Answer 9

In many cases like a snake "SSSSS" However, you are correct, there are variations. That's why learning English is so challenging. So challenging , in fact, many of the UK nationals have given up and mainly grunt and shriek on television programmes such as "Trisha" and "Jeremy Kyle Show"

xxB

Answer 10

you pronounce "s" as a "z" when it is before a vowel, which is usually going to be e...
its also a z when the "s" is making the word plural, like in "skies"
if the s is next to another consanant and before an e like in "course" its going to be an s, and if its the last letter or next to another consanant its "S"

s is pronounced like a snake's hiss...

Answer 11

"S" will usually be pronounced as "Z" when is appears at the end of a word. The exception is words that end in "ss", like dress, bless, distress.