How to Pronounce the S and Z Sounds in English - Improve Your Pronunciation and Speak More Clearly
Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me for another blog post! Today we will be having a short pronunciation lesson.
Want to develop your English pronunciation skills and speak more clearly and confidently? Learning how to accurately pronounce the S and Z sounds is a good start.
In this practical English pronunciation lesson, I will teach you a simple technique to always pronounce these sounds correctly - and I will show you exactly what to do with your mouth to sound like a native speaker. Become more confident in your pronunciation ability and sound more natural when you speak with this simple yet effective way of fixing your pronunciation worries.
Click on the video below to watch and learn, and read the transcript underneath to check your understanding and revise today's pronunciation topic. Also, at the bottom of this post, you'll find a useful summary of the most important points to remember.
I hope that you enjoy this lesson - feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, I'm always happy to help.
:) Nicole
How To Pronounce The S and Z Sounds In English - Improve Your Pronunciation and Speak More Clearly
From the Sydney English Teacher YouTube Channel
TRANSCRIPT OF THE ABOVE VIDEO: 'How To Pronounce The S and Z Sounds In English - Improve Your Pronunciation and Speak More Clearly'
Hi everyone, its Nicole here and I'm answering another pronunciation question This time we’re looking at the S sound and the Z sound - the ssss and the zzzz.
Again, this is quite a tricky one, especially because almost every word ends in an S. You know, all nouns can be plural. So we have to add an s on the end, and just because it's written as an s doesn’t means it’s pronounced as a ssss because it can also be pronounced as a zzzz, so I thought I'd look at the difference and answer that question for you, and make life a little bit easier.
So, just like the previous pronunciation explanations I've given you, these are a pair of sounds, the S and the Z belong together because you're doing exactly the same thing with your mouth to form the sound - the only difference between these two sounds is that with one of them you use your voice, and with the other you don't, so one is voiced, and one is unvoiced.
So, we've got the ssss and the zzzz - so how do we form that sound? Well, basically you smile, and you push the air out between the gaps in your teeth, basically, you’re putting your tongue here, resting it, and letting that air push out, ssss, here, ssss, ssss.
You know that every language has an S. I think you all know how to make an S. The difference is the z sound.
So you're doing exactly the same thing, ssss, but this time you're adding your voice. That's all. So, ssss, zzzz, ssss, zzzz, if you put your hand here, you can feel the vibration. ssss, zzzz, ssss, zzzz, perfect.
There you go, that's all you need to know. So, you've got your s sound and your z sound, they are voiced and unvoiced, ok, so we've got Sue, sound, century, search, or zoo, zigzag, zipper, zebra, so, what I'm doing there is I'm holding that z sound, that vibration, for about a second, just so that you can hear it, ok.
At the end of a word we might have genius, talks, aerobics, cats, cooks, or with the z ending, are you ready? Just because the spelling is an s doesn't mean we pronounce it an s, we've got eyes, runs, cars, arrives and years. Well done. There you go.
So, the s and the z belong together, make the same sound, the only difference is with the z you add your voice, you add that vibration.
Well done, go and practise and listen out for all the s and the z when you're listening to people talk.
Have a great day. I really hope that helped. Bye.
How was the learning video? Did it help you understand the difference between the S and Z sound? I hope so! It's not as difficult as it sounds, is it?
Let me summarise the most important points for you to remember:
-S and Z are a sound pair - the only difference between them is that with one of them you use your voice, and with the other you don't (one is voiced, the other is unvoiced)
-S: smile, and push the air out between the gaps in your teeth - ssss, ssss, ssss
-Z: do exactly the same, ssss, but this time add your voice, zzzz - hold the vibration from one second
-Sue, sound, century, search, zoo, zigzag, zipper, zebra, genius, talks, aerobics, cats, cooks, eyes, runs, cars, arrives, years
That's all you need to know - making the sound distinction between these two is a lot easier than you thought, isn't it!
Want to practise more? Write a list of as many words that use the S sound as possible - words that begin with the S sound, words that end with the S sound, and words that have the S sound in the middle - do the same for the Z sound - you will see that you end up with a very very long list - and if you want to make it even longer, listen out for more S and Z words when you are watching tv, listening to the radio, or talking with your family and friends.
I hope that this video has been helpful and enjoyable for you and I look forward to teaching you a lot more English sounds in the near future.
Thanks for taking the time to learn with me, it is a great pleasure helping you!
:) Nicole
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