Consonant Sound / z / as in “zoo” – American English Pronunciation

Can you guess the most common spelling for the /z/ sound in American English? Correct, it’s the letter ‘s’, as in the word “as.” Confusing spelling is one of the many reasons why people often mispronounce words with the /z/sound. Watch this video to find out more about typical mistakes that people make when making this sound. As usual, all the pronunciation instructions and exercises are recorded by a professional speech therapist.

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Quick Links:
• Consonant sound /z/, as in “zoo:” 00:00
• Brief overview of fricative consonants: 00:47
• Fricative consonants definition: 01:37
• How to pronounce the /z/ sound: 03:20
• Typical mistakes: 04:26
• Pronunciation exercise 1: 07:24
• Pronunciation exercise 2: 09:30
• Spelling for the /z/ sound: 11:24

Related Videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #FricativeSounds
► Consonant Sound /f/ as in “fun”

► Consonant Sound /v/ as in “very”

► Consonant Sound /s/ as in “sun”

► Consonant Sound /z/ as in “zoo” – this video
► Consonant Sound /ʃ/ as in “show”

► Consonant Sound /ʒ/ as in “vision”

► Consonant Sound /θ/ as in “think”

► Consonant Sound /ð/ as in “this”

► Consonant Sound /h/ as in “home”

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, VIETNAMESE, JAPANESE, CHINESE, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT
Hello there! This is the “Sounds American” channel.
In this video, we’re going to talk about the American consonant sound /z/, as in the word “zoo.”
You can also hear this sound in words like “zebra,” “rose,” “music” or “exam.”
We’ll be using a special phonetic symbol – /z/ – for this sound.
As always, let’s begin with some phonology. Fear not, it’s all pretty simple.
The /z/ belongs to a category of consonant sounds called the fricatives.
This is the largest group of consonants in American English: it consists of nine different sounds!
All these sounds are made by partially blocking the air moving through your mouth which creates audible friction.
Speaking about the /z/ consonant, this sound is made by partially blocking the air flowing between the tip of your tongue and your alveolar ridge.
Let’s begin and find out how Americans pronounce the /z/ sound.
Slightly open your mouth.
Now, focus on the position of the tip of your tongue.
Raise the tip of your tongue to your alveolar ridge, but don’t touch it. Make sure there’s a small gap between them.
Now, release a stream of air over the tip of your tongue.
When the air flows between the tip of your tongue and the alveolar ridge towards your upper teeth, it creates a lot of noise. Something like this: /z/.
The /z/ is a voiced consonant, so don’t forget to add your voice.
Same as all the other fricatives, the /z/ is a continuous sound, so you should be able to stretch it out, like this.
Let’s do it together.

Here are a few typical mistakes that people make when pronouncing this sound.
1. The most common mistake is that non-native speakers devoice the /z/ sound when it occurs at the end of words. Many people are not aware that they should pronounce the voiced /z/ sound. Others simply don’t realize that they pronounce the voiceless /s/ sound.
Remember, the American /z/ is never devoiced at the end of words!
Compare:
By the way, don’t forget to lengthen the vowel before the /z/ sound! The /z/ is a voiced consonant, so the vowel sound before the /z/ is typically longer than before its voiceless counterpart, the consonant sound /s/.
Compare:
This is called the Vowel Length rule and we talked about it in detail in one of our videos. As usual, you can find the link in the Description box below.
2. Another typical problem is that the /z/ is distorted or dropped at the end of words.
In some languages, words don’t end with fricative sounds, but if you drop them in English, you’ll be misunderstood.
3. Some people pronounce the /z/ sound by putting the tip of the tongue between the teeth. As a result, they make a different fricative consonant, the /ð/ sound. And this may lead to misunderstandings.

[Pronunciation exercise 1]
• blaze
• breeze
• buzz
• cozy
• crazy
• doze
• freeze
• jazz
• lazy
• prize
• realize
• size
• sneeze
• squeeze
• zebra
• zero
• zinc
• zip
• zone
• zoom
[Pronunciation exercise 2]
• busy
• cousin
• daisy
• deserve
• design
• desire
• easy
• music
• newspaper
• observe
• pleasant
• poison
• presence
• raisin
• reason
• resort
• season
• Thursday
• Tuesday
• visit

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