/S/ sound & /Z/ Sound

• when do we use /S/ sound
• When do we use /Z/ sound
• And what is the difference?
• Let's find out...

Snake

bee

The two sound /S/ & /Z/
are very close and cause endless confusion for student.

There are some rules and the rules are normally to do with the voiced and unvoiced sounds.

A voiced sound is that made when we use our vocal cords.

/Z/ is the voiced from of the sound /S/ which is unvoiced.

Put your fingers on your throat when you say that word buzz, you should feel a vibration in your throat at the end of the word. This is caused by the vocal cords vibrating and adding to the sound.

Now say hiss.

This time you should not feel any vibration in your throat. Your vocal cords are not involving making sound /S/.

Buzz ends in the letter Z, so its easy to see that it needs the /Z/ sound,
isn't it?

Hiss end in the letter S,so its easy to see that it needs the /S/ sound,
Right?

WRONG!!!

Many words that end in the letter S,or have the letter S in them,have the /Z/ sound,not the /S/ sound.

Take the adjective CLOSE and the verb CLOSE!
same spelling but different sounds.

Whats going on?

The adjective close has the /S/ sound,but the verb close has the /Z/ sound.This is because the sound in the verb cloSe come between two vowel sounds.

We don't actually say the final vowel sound, but we we can say that S falls between two vowels. All vowels are voiced so that S becomes voiced too.In the adjective cloSe, the word ends with the /s/ sound, not vowel.

As we have just seen, the letter S inside word can sometimes be a /S/ sound and sometimes a /Z/ sound.

Other examples are the words 'sister' and 'resist'.
Both contain the letter SIST combination.

In sister, the first letter is /s/ and the second is /s/,too.In sister, the second s is followed by a voiceless sound /t/.
/sis-tər/

In resist,the first letter S is /z/while the second is /s/. In resist,the first S is between the vowel sound /I/ and a second vowel sound /I/.
/ri-ˈzist/

In the word whimsy, the S is also voiced.
/ˈhwim-zē/
Not that it also lies between two voiced sounds.

There is a very confusing aspect of the S sound in American English.S has more of a light Z sound in some common words when the S follows a vowel.

When S Sounds Like Z

• IS - Rise - Eyes - Confuse - Easy
• Was - Raise - Rose - Ties - These
• His - Flies - Those - Movies
• Has - Use - Flows - Because

Common z sound spellings
1.Zoo , Dozen , Quiz
2.Visit , His , Because
3.Exit , Example, Anxiety
(-s/-es suffix)
Boys , Cars , Finishes
Whether the -s/-es suffix is pronounced with a z sound or with an s sound depends on the final sound before the suffix.

Common s sound spellings

• center license bounce
• so past kiss
• science muscle descend
• box next oxygen