The /s/ is one of the most common sounds in the world. Does it mean that it’s pronounced the same way everywhere? No, of course not. Watch this video to find out the most common pronunciation mistakes non-native speakers make when they speak American English. You’ll practice making this sound with pronunciation exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.
By the way, we have a website:
Quick Links:
• Consonant sound /s/, as in “sun:” 00:00
• Brief overview of fricative consonants: 00:48
• Fricative consonants definition: 01:30
• How to pronounce the /s/ sound: 02:29
• Typical mistakes: 03:30
• Pronunciation exercise 1: 06:42
• Pronunciation exercise 2: 08:29
• Pronunciation exercise 3: 09:57
• Spelling for the /s/ sound: 11:30
• Question from our subscribers: 12:09
Related Videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #FricativeSounds
► Consonant Sound /f/ as in “fun”
► Consonant Sound /v/ as in “very”
► Consonant Sound /s/ as in “sun” – this video
► Consonant Sound /z/ as in “zoo”
► 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”
► Vowel Length Rule:
[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, JAPANESE, 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 /s/, as in the word “sun.”
You can also hear this sound in words like “sleep,” “place,” “dress” or “horse.”
We’ll be using a special phonetic symbol – /s/ – for this sound.
As usual, let’s begin with some phonology. Don’t panic, it’s not complicated :).
The /s/ 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!
So, why are they called the fricative consonants?
All these sounds are made by partially blocking the air moving through your mouth, which creates audible friction.
Speaking about the /s/ consonant, this sound is made by partially blocking the air flowing between the tip of your tongue and your alveolar ridge.
The /s/ is one of the most common sounds in the world. Most of you are familiar with it and probably have this consonant in your native language.
As always, we did our best to make this video worthy of your time. However, you don’t have to watch it if you’re confident in your American /s/ sound. We’ll understand.
For those of you who’re still with us, let’s find it out how to make this 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 your tongue.
When the air flows between the tip of your tongue and the alveolar ridge towards your upper teeth, it’ll create lots of noise. Something like this: /s/.
Remember, all the fricatives are continuous sounds and the /s/ is no exception. So, let’s try and stretch it out. Ready? /s-s-s-s-s/
Good. Let’s do it again: /s-s-s-s-s/
Here are a few typical mistakes that people make when pronouncing this sound.
1. The most common problem is that many non-native English speakers replace the /s/ with the /ʃ/ consonant, especially when it occurs before vowels or at the end of words.
The /s/ gets distorted when you raise the blade of your tongue toward the roof of your mouth.
See how it may lead to misunderstandings?
[Pronunciation exercise 1]
• same
• sat
• saw
• say
• scene
• scrap
• scratch
• scream
• script
• seed
• seek
• send
• sing
• sky
• sleep
[Pronunciation exercise 2]
• ask
• assign
• assist
• best
• disappear
• dislike
• distant
• domestic
• dust
• eastern
• hospital
• icicle
• install
• massage
• person
[Pronunciation exercise 3]
• advice
• audience
• balance
• bounce
• chance
• circus
• course
• dress
• entrance
• fox
• juice
• nice
• purpose
• twice
• us
source
🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓You can start with the article about the /s/ sound: https://soundsamerican.net/article/consonant_sound_s_as_in_sun
teacher, thank so much, greetings from Medellin Colombia
Update it or I’m coming for you 🤓
❤ thanks
No, the tongue doesn't approach the alveolar ridge. The tip of the tongue touches the back of front teeth, and blade of tongue comes near the alveolar ridge. I tried to pronounce it by your method but it is difficult to pronounce /s/ and /z/ this way.
Thank you
Is this an AI channel?
Consonant sound s as in sun – American English pronunciation
wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
6:38. Theory is important.
This is the best channel I ever seen.
Do you think about making illustration of movement of mouth for some example? I usually find it difficult to mix some worlds.
S is voiced when placed between two vowel letters. (Except when preceded by A letter.)
BUT: to use [s]– to use [z], house [s] — to house [z], and so on.
This rule works for native english words and for loanwords of other languages influenced by Latin: french, spanish, german etc.
BUT in greek loanwords S is always voiceless. (And loanwords of such as Greek exotic, uninfluenced by Latin tongues as well)
phase, case — (a)S(vowel) => voiceless S (phase is also a greek borrowing, what "ph" points on)
lazy is not lasy, because otherwise it would be too, voiceless, as we can see.
I am english learner and these rules just help me. I took them from zompist and com and slash and spell dot html (youtube deletes comments with links so to write it thus). It was great treasure to find for learning pronunciation.
muchas gracias, ha sido de gran ayuda, al aprender a pronunciar el oido empieza a entender mejor el idioma ingles, aprende a dierenciar entre sonidos
ha sido de mucha ayuda estos videos
I do love your explanations.
02:30
Excellent video thanks
Tons of thanks.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Hello! Great video! I have a similar question! I watched your non stop… but still confused. Could you please help? If i pronounce word cat there's a little puff comes out non stop means not puff at all even a little my puff isn't the same as t in the beginning but at the end little goes out is this the right way?
It's amazing 😍🤩😍🤩😍
Great
😀
Thanks
Until I was 11, I used to pronounce the phoneme /s/ completely wrong. The sound I would use doesn’t even exist in speech. I’d make a quick breath out my nose, and it was like a sniffing sound but through a brief exhalation. For /z/, I would do the same thing while vibrating my vocal chords. It’s likely what caused me to have a nasal accent when I was a little kid. My dad tried to teach me how to correctly pronounce /s/ when I was 8, but I couldn’t do it. It’s a good thing my speech teacher helped me when I was 11 in 5th grade. Now when I try to pronounce /s/ and /z/ like that to see how I used to sound, it sounds even worse because it’s unnatural to me now that I can say those two phonemes the right way.
+++
your videos are so much helpful to me. Thanks
Thanks!
Thanks!
Hi there thanks a lot for your effort I need ( x ) sound pls
This is called:
Voiceless alveolar fricative
A pulmonic consanant
Hello, is your teeth touch each other for S sound.
eastern hospital icicle instal massage person
Same sat saw say scene scrap scratch scream script seed seek send sing sky sleep ask assign assist best disappear dislike distant domestic dust eastern hospital icicle instal massage person advice audience balance bounce chance circus course dress entrance fox juice nice purpose twice us
Thanks to God for this channel!! I am learning a lot with you SoundsAmerican. You are a great teacher ✌🏼💪🏼
What's a ridge?
I sound like. A snake after practice with this video. Maybe it is because I tend to pronounce s by touching my tip of the tougue on my alveolar ridge, but I have fixed this mistake after watching this video.
احسنت النشر بارك الله بيك
Bonjour, je ne comprends pas votre transcription phonétique pour le mot saw: dans le dictionnaire Cambridge, c’est un a long représenté comme ceci : /a:/ alors que ce n’est pas le symbole que vous avez indiqué, j’aimerais comprendre puisque je m’adapte à la transcription phonétique pour bien prononcer et lorsque c’est différent du dictionnaire, je ne comprends pas, j’apprécierais beaucoup que vous donniez suite à ma question. Merci beaucoup, c’est très intéressant votre formation!
I have a little lisp pronouncing this sound. And you said at the beginning of the video that the tongue shouldn't touch the the alveolar ridge. And I have no idea how to do it without touching that. Specifically after "L", "N", "T," and "D" sounds. So, do you have any advice how to fix this issue? Anyways thanks for this great channel!
L
Hi there,
Rule 1
When an s follows a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced as /s/
Rule 2
When an s follows a voiced consonant or a vowel, it is pronounced as a /z/
Rule3
Double s is pronounced as /s/
Rule4
An extra syllable is added to words that end with certain consonant sounds followed by s. The final s is pronounced as /z/.
– g
-sh
-ch
-s, ss, c
-x
Hope that helps 🙂
You use your teeth right i can't do it without my teeth
It's been months since I started learning American accent and your videos are really helpful. Infact your channel is one of the best american accent training channels. But you haven't been uploading anything.