There is a lot of confusion about the pronunciation of words that end in the letter S, especially plurals, which is why it is one of the most common pronunciation errors. There are three final sounds to these words, /s/ and /z/ are two of the sounds that occur, while the third possibility is /iz/. Watch the video for the rules and examples.
Pronunciation Difficulties and Practice
Many think that the /z/ sound is an easy sound to make, but when they hear another student, they think they are wrong. It is the voiced sound of /s/ which is so common in many languages. But to get that voiced sound with the sound in the throat and the tongue behind the teeth, it can be quite difficult for some. If you would like to practice ‘s’ endings by yourself, give this a try. It’s quite challenging and needs to be done on the Chrome browser.
So, do you need to learn which plural nouns end with which sounds or are there rules? Well, you are in luck. There are some rules.
Pronunciation of Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds
First, let’s talk about the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds.
Voiced Sounds
Voiced sounds are sounds that come from your throat. If you put two fingers to your throat, when you say sounds like /b/, /v/, /m/, you can feel your throat vibrate. This is the ‘voice’ of the voiced.
The voiced phonemes are: /b/, /d/, /ʤ/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/
Unvoiced Sounds
Unvoiced sounds are sounds that don’t make your throat vibrate. For example, /f/, /s/ and /p/.
Unvoiced phonemes (not including vowel sounds) are: /p/, /t/, /ʧ/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, and /ʃ/
Sibilant Sounds
There is another sound that is important. The sibilant sound can be unvoiced or voiced but is similar to an /s/ sound, or a sound that hisses or buzzes. For example, /s/, /z/ etc
Sibilant letters are: c, s, x, z, ss, ch, sh, ge
| Voiced | Unvoiced | Sibilant |
| /b/ | /p/ | c |
| /d/ | /t/ | s |
| /ʤ/ | /ʧ/ | x |
| /g/ | /k/ | ss |
| /v/ | /f/ | ch |
| /ð/ | /θ/ | sh |
| /z/ | /s/ | ge |
| /ʒ/ | /ʃ/ |
Rules for the Pronunciation of final ‘s’
1/
If the original final sound before the s is voiced, then the pronunciation of the plural s is /z/ for example, words, deals, fans etc.
2/
If the pronunciation of the plural s is /s/ then the final sound before that s must be unvoiced. For example, books, hats, myths etc
3/
But if the final sound before the s is sibilant, then the ending is /iz/ which also adds another syllable to the word. So go from kiss to kisses, race to races and bus to buses.
Below is an excellent infographic from Woodward English that explains all this very clearly.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, there are three endings /z/, /s/ and /iz/, and there are clear rules to use. But remember this is English, so somewhere there will be an exception.
Good luck, see you next time and thank you for reading.
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Very well explained, clear, and useful. Thanks for your help.
Thanks,this was really helpful for me
Thank you for the comment, Salam.
The originals of these words all end in an /i/ sound, such as baby, party and country.
When you change the letter ‘y’ to ‘ies’ for the plural, you keep the /i/ sound and add a /z/ making the whole word end in /iz/.
I hope that helps.
Useful but what about thé prononciation of final s in words liké countries babies parties is it z or iz
good
Very useful