Hey everyone! I'm Luke and in this English lesson we're going to study the
pronunciation of -S endings, so simply words ending in -s. -s endings are so
common in English, verbs can end in s, plural nouns can end in s, contractions
can also end in s. So it's very important that you know how to pronounce the S
at the end of these words. And there are three ways that the S can be pronounced.
It can be /s/ /z/ and /Iz/. So now let's look at some examples and the rules for using
the correct pronunciation of /s/. Let's start with the /s/ ending sound. For example
likes stops laughs sports and baths. Did you hear the sound at the end of these
words? Yeah, these ones are pretty easy because the spelling and pronunciation
match. The letter S is pronounced as /s/. That's easy! But how do we know when to
use the sound? Is there a rule? Well firstly we have to look at the sound
that comes right before the /s/. so let's remove the sound to find out. We have
like /k/ stop /p/ laugh /f/ sport /t/ and bath /th/. Are all unvoiced
consonants English has voiced and unvoiced consonants. With unvoiced
consonants you don't use your vocal cords. So if you touch your throat and
say the sounds you don't feel any vibration at all. So the rule is you need
to use the /s/ sound for words that end in an unvoiced consonant. likes stops laughs
sports baths. Now let's take a look at the /z/ ending sound. For example dogs words
loves dreams and sings. These words all end with the /z/ ending
sound, but why what's the rule here? Again we need to look at the sound
right before the /z/. So, let's remove that and see what we have we have dog /g/
word /d/ love /v/ dream /m/ and sing /ng/. And these are all examples of right
they are voiced consonants. Voiced consonants use your vocal cords in your
throat so if you put your fingers to your throat and say a voiced consonant
you can feel it vibrate. /d/ /g/ /v/. So the rule is you need to use the sound
for words that end in a voiced consonant. dog's words loves dreams
sings fans feels wears jobs. There's one more thing with this ending sound. All
words ending in a vowel also use the /z/ sound for the -s. For example plays trees
toes. The third one is /IZ/ buses boxes changes watches finishes prizes. This /IZ/
ending sound is represented by the -es spelling, so that makes it much easier to
identify and to know when to use this sound. So that's good! But without going
into lots of detail is there a rule for using /IZ/? Well yes there is words that
end in s, ks, j, ch, sh and z always use there /IZ/ pronunciation for
words ending in the es spelling. buses boxes changes watches finishes prizes. So
these are the three ways of pronouncing the S sound in English words. The next
time you're having trouble trying to decide how to pronounce an S sound, you
can use these rules to help you. Thanks for watching and I'll catch you later!