Let's talk about this little letter here.
When you see it, you should pronounce it like "s," right?
If only English were that simple.
In this video, we're going to talk about how to pronounce words ending in -s and -es.
There are actually three possible pronunciations of these two endings on plural nouns, third
person singular verbs, contractions, and possessives.
The -s suffix can be tricky for non-native English speakers, so let's go back to basics.
Let's fix this common pronunciation mistake so that people understand you better and you
sound more natural.
If you speak a phonetic language, or a language that's pronounced the way it looks, English
can be more than a little bit frustrating.
Why does the -s suffix sound like /s/ or /z/?
And why does the -es ending actually sound like /iz/?
Getting the sound right is essential for communicating your meaning clearly.
Choosing the wrong sound can confuse your listener because it can actually sound like
another word, or even sound incomplete.
Let's break it down.
As I mentioned in my video on how to pronounce the -ed ending, we actually choose the appropriate
pronunciation, /s/, /z/, or /iz/, based on the sound at the end of the main word.
The letters don't matter, only the sound does.
We choose /s/, /z/, or /iz/ based on how we move our mouth and our voice box to form the sound.
In other words, we choose the sound that's most efficient for our mouth, jaw, tongue,
and voice box.
We can separate sounds into two categories: voiced and voiceless sounds.
Voiced sounds are the ones produced by vibrating your vocal cords within your voice box.
Voiceless sounds are produced without using your voice box.
In order to decide whether or not a sound is voiced or voiceless, you have to understand
how the sound is produced within your body.
That's why you want to take your hand and place it over your voice box.
That's right: take your hand and place it on your neck.
This has the added bonus of helping you physically remember how the sound is made.
And you don't have to memorize a list of rules!
You can always remember how the sound is made in your throat.
Before we start practicing, I want to remind you that we're trying to feel whether or not
our vocal cords vibrate on the final sound of the word.
Don't get confused by the vowel sounds that come before the final sound - those will vibrate.
You want the sound at the end.
Let's get started.
Let's start with voiceless sounds.
First, let's look at the word "map."
Let's try the sound at the end of the word: /p/.
P, p, p, p, p.
Do you feel your voice box vibrating on the /p/ Sound?
No, it doesn't vibrate, which means it's a voiceless sound.
Now let's try the /s/ sound.
S, s, s, s, s.
Feel your voice box.
Is it vibrating when you say /s/?
S, s, s, s, s.
Nope!
We use the /s/ Sound after other voiceless sounds because we can flow smoothly into that
following sound.
Going back to our example, that means the plural of "map" is "maps," or the /s/ sound.
Try saying it: maps, maps, maps, maps.
Let's try another word: cat.
"Cat" ends in the /t/ sound.
Let's try it.
T, t, t, t, t.
Do you notice your voice box vibrating?
Once again, it's not vibrating.
That's because /t/ is a voiceless sound.
Let's add the /s/ ending to the plural of cat: cats, cats, cats, cats.
The /t/ sound flows smoothly into the /s/ sound.
Here's another one: pick.
The sound at the end is /k/.
Do you feel a vibration from your vocal cords?
Once again, you don't.
That means the third person singular version of this verb is "picks."
It's followed by the /s/ sound: picks, picks, picks.
Here's another example: laugh.
As you can see, this word is spelled differently than it sounds.
Laugh ends in the /f/ sound.
F, f, f, f, f.
Do you feel your voice box vibrating on this sound?
F, f, f, f, f.
Once again, there's no vibration because the /f/ sound is also voiceless.
The third person singular form of this verb is laughs, laughs, laughs, laughs.
Let's try an example of a possessive.
"Kate" is a common name in English and it ends in the /t/ sound.
As you've already discovered, the /t/ sound is voiceless, which means we use the /s/ sound
for the possessive form: Kate's, Kate's, Kate's.
This rule also works for contractions.
For example, take a look at the word "that."
When we contract "that" with "is" it sounds like that's.
That's because /t/ is a voiceless sound: that's, that's, that's really cool, that's Kate's
book.
Now let's move on to voiced sounds.
Voiced sounds are the ones where your voice box vibrates.
Let's try the word "move."
Move ends in the /v/ sound.
Can you feel your voice box vibrating on that sound?
V, v, v, v, v. Yes, you can.
Now let's try the /z/ sound.
Do your vocal cords vibrate?
Z, z, z, z, z.
Yes, they do.
/z/ is a voiced sound, which means it follows other voiced sounds.
Once again, this helps us be more efficient when producing these sounds.
The third person singular of "move" is "moves": moves, moves, moves.
Here's another one: road.
"Road" ends in the /d/ sound: d, d, d, d.
You can feel your voice box vibrating, right?
That means the plural of "road" is "roads," with the /z/ sound at the end.
Roads, roads, roads.
Let's try another: plan.
"Plan" ends in the /n/ sound.
N, n, n, n.
Can you feel your voice box vibrating?
Yes, you can.
This means the third person singular, or the plural, should be plans, plans, plans, plans.
The /z/ sound follows a voiced sound.
Here's another: call.
"Call" ends in the /l/ sound.
L, l, l, l.
Can you feel it vibrating?
Yup.
That means the third person singular should be "calls": calls, calls.
Now let's try a possessive, or a contraction.
Let's look at my name: Kim.
Kim ends in /m/.
M, m, m, m.
You can feel your voice box vibrating, am I right?
When we add apostrophe -s to my name, such as when we say "Kim's video," or "Kim's on
her way," we add the /z/ sound to the end.
Kim's, Kim's, Kim's, Kim's.
Let's look at the word "try."
It ends in a vowel sound, /ai/.
I, i, i.
You'll notice that the /ai/ sound is also voiced.
In fact, all vowel sounds are voiced.
That means the third person singular, or the plural, of the word "try" is "tries": tries,
tries, tries.
Now let's move on to the pronoun "she."
"She" ends in the /i/ sound.
E, e, e.
You can feel your voicebox vibrating, right?
That means that the contraction of "she and "is" is she's, she's, she's, she's.
You'll notice the same thing for a possessive.
For example, with the name "Laura," you'll notice the "uh" sound at the end.
Uh, uh, uh.
Another voiced vowel.
That means the possessive form will be Laura's, Laura's, Laura's, with a /z/ at the end.
Now let's talk about the -es ending.
Despite how it's spelled, the -es ending actually sounds like /iz/.
This is because it's a reduction.
The -es ending on plural nouns or third person singular verbs will never be stressed.
When we reduce sounds, they actually sound like the schwa sound or the /i/ sound.
In this case, the -es ending sounds like /iz.
We add /iz/ to words that end in the following sounds: /s/, /z/, /ks/, /sh/, /ch/, /dg/.
The reason we add /iz/ has to do with the way we move our mouths to form these sounds.
/iz/ adds an extra syllable to the end of the word, which gives us more time to make
the distinction.
For example, with the word "miss," you wouldn't be able to clearly hear that it's the third
person singular version of this verb without that extra sound.
Try it without it: missss, misss, misssssss.
It doesn't sound right.
That's why you need to add the /iz/: misses, misses, misses.
The meaning is clear when we add that extra syllable: misses, misses, misses.
Let's try another one: close.
Even though the word contains the letter "s," it actually sounds like the /z/ sound: close.
The plural is closes, closes, closes.
The extra syllable gives us time to make sure that we're clear that it is the third person
singular version: closes, closes, closes.
What about "mix"?
When we make this word plural, or turn it into the third person singular version, it
sounds like mixes, mixes, mixes.
Let's look at "wash."
Once again, we need to add /iz/ to the end: washes, washes, washes, washes.
Here's another one: teach.
Teaches, teaches, teaches.
Once again, we're adding /iz/ to the end.
One last example: edge.
We're going to add /iz/ to the end: edges, edges, edges.
A quick reminder about word stress.
When you're pronouncing words that add that extra /iz/ sound, make sure to pay attention
to word stress.
The main word should be stressed, and the /iz/ ending should be reduced.
For example, washes, teaches, changes.
You want to make sure you lengthen the vowel sound on the stressed syllable of that word:
washes, teaches, changes.
For longer words that end in these sounds, you want to make sure you identify which syllable
should be stressed.
Be sure to review my video on word stress in American English for more guidance.
Now that you've learned the three different ways we pronounce the -s and -es endings on
plural nouns, third person singular verbs, possessives, and contractions, it's time to
practice.
If you're not sure how to pronounce the -s ending on nouns or verbs, be sure to take
your hand and place it on your voice box in order to decide whether or not your vocal
cords are vibrating on the final sound of that word.
It's the quickest and easiest way to know how to pronounce the word accurately.
If you're not sure if you're making mistakes with the -s or -es ending, pay attention to
whether or not people understand you when you're pronouncing plurals or you're pronouncing
third person singular verbs, possessives, or contractions.
When you drop the ending entirely, or you pronounce /s/ when you should say /z/, or
/z/ when you should say /s/, it can confuse your listener.
The word may sound like a different word, or it will simply sound "off."
If you catch yourself mispronouncing the word, don't be afraid to repeat yourself with the
correct sound at the end.
For more practice on voiced and voiceless sounds, be sure to check out my video on how
to pronounce the -ed ending on past tense verbs like a native English speaker.
Once again, I'm from englishwithkim.com.
I'n your guide to the essential communication skills you need to sound more natural in English.
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Goodbye.