We will look at two special cases where the letter “s” appears at the end of a word:

1. at the end of a verb,

2. at the end of a noun.

In these two cases the pronunciation of the “s”, whether it is voiced or unvoiced depends on the surrounding consonants.

Let’s see…

1. The letter “s” at the end of a verb:

There always is an “s” at the end of a verb in the third person singular of the present tense of the English verb.

Wait a minute! Don’t throw the book out the window!

We’ll explain the grammar in a “user friendly” way…

You know that the present tense of the verb describes what is going on right now. I eat; He walks etc. These forms of the verb communicate something very different from the forms that say I ate or He walked.

The verb also tells us something about the persons involved in the issue the sentence is informing about. The following table shows the persons of the verb.

The Persons of the Verb

Singular First Person
I eat fish.
Second Person
You (one person) eat fish.
Third Person
He eats fish.
She eats fish.
The cat eats fish.

Plural First Person
We eat fish.
Second Person
You (several persons) eat fish.
Third Person
They eat fish.

The person that is speaking is the first person (I do it.). The person that is being spoken to is the second person (You are doing it.).

And that which interests us is the third person singular, the person about whom the sentence is giving some information. In other words, the third person is the person that we are talking about. For example, John is writing a book. We are talking about John. The verb is has a third person form.

That’s all! No more grammar!

We reviewed the grammar of the person of the verb in order to reach the point that we can say that in English, there always is the letter “s” at the end of the third person singular of the present tense of the English verb.

Many immigrants learn English from their neighbors who say “My son do it” or “My father say it”. Unfortunately, not all native speakers of English speak correctly. The correct form of these sentences needs the letter “s” at the end of the verb. My son does it. and My father says it. The third person singular of the present tense of English verbs always ends with the letter “s”.

But this is grammar. What we want to concentrate on is the pronunciation. Remember this! Sometimes the letter “s” of one word has a different sound from the letter “s” of another word. Sometimes the sound is voiced and sometimes the sound is voiceless. The influence on the pronunciation of the “s” is that of the surrounding consonants.

First let’s look at some examples and then let’s see if there is a “rule” you can learn to know how to pronounce the “s” in these cases.

In our book you can listen to the recordings to be able to appreciate that the third person singular of the present tense of the English verb always ends in some kind of a sibilant or buzzing sound.

You should be able to notice how there is a different sound to the final “s” of the verbs says, walks, does, talks. It can be pronounced in two ways. You should hear the difference?

In the plural of the verb, there is no ending. The same basic or root form of the verb is used in all the persons. We walk, they walk; we find, they find, etc.,p.

The difference in the ending of verbs in the third person singular is that the final sound ofwalks and wants is voiceless or unvoiced and the final sound of uses, teaches, does, finds, and says is voiced.

Practice hearing and producing the voiced consonant with the words does, says, goes, bends, loses. Also listen to the sssssssssssssssss of the voiceless sound (like the air coming out of a flat tire) and the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (the sound of an angry bumblebee) of the voiced sound.

The letter “s” in the word does and in the word says is pronounced like the letter “z” of the English alphabet. It is a voiced sound.

Think of the animal we see in the zoo that looks like a horse in its pijamas. The same striped animal is called a zebra in English (with a voiced “z”) and is called a cebra in other languages (with a voiceless “c”). This example will help you to realize that you must concentrate on the pronunciation without depending on the spelling. The two letters “z” and “c” in the sentences of above are formed in the same part of the mouth. As sounds, they differ only in that one is voiced and the other is voiceless. As spelling, they differ for many historical reasons.

Another example is the word zoo . Compare this word to the woman’s name, Sue. The “z” is voiced and the “s” is unvoiced. Again, the spelling is a totally different issue. We are worrying about pronunciation here.

2. The”s” at the end of a noun:

We just saw how the “s” changes at the end of a verb. The same thing happens when the “s” sound forms the plural of nouns (the names of persons, places, and things).

There is a different sound to the “s” in the following plural words: cats, tops, locks and the words: does, boys, cars, bells, etc.

OK, we just looked at the 2 cases where the letter “s” appears at the end of a word: at the end of a verb, and at the end of a noun. Now we learn more about the pronunciation of the letter “s” in these two cases.

A three part “rule”:
You’re probably asking, “How do I know when to pronounce the letter “s” one way or the other?

You are lucky! Nature itself helps you out. The difference between the sounds is not the result of the whim of some ancestor of the English; it is the result of how the human mouth works. There are “rules” that describe the relation between the voiced and the unvoiced consonants in most of the cases.

Certain combinations of consonant sounds require the voiced “s” of the word bins, and the voiceless sound of the word bats.

Algo parecido sucede en otros idiomas aunque con diferentes consonantes. El Castellano exige que el sonido representado por la “v” de invitar sea diferente de la “v” de ave. Te das cuenta de la diferencia?

If you still can’t feel the difference between the voiced “s” and the voiceless “s”, maybe this “rule” will help you. But you still have to listen to English spoken by a native speaker as much as you can. You must repeat what you hear and you must exaggerate the difference between the two sounds until it is easy for you to catch the difference and to imitate it.

As you see, we always use the word “rule” in quotes because it is not engraved in stone. Nevertheless it still has great value. It it helps you 9 times out of 10 to master certain points of English, you are not going to complain about the times it fails!

Here is the simple “rule” that covers the pronunciation of the “s”. It tells us why the “s” is voiceless in the word bits and why it is voiced in the word bins. Generally the “s” of the plural of the noun is voiceless when the singular noun ends in one of the other voiceless consonants and the final “s” is voiced when it follows a voiced consonant. It is the same for the third person singular of the verb.

Generally the “s” is unvoiced when the basic form of the verb ends in an unvoiced consonant and it is voiced when it follows an unvoiced consonant. Let’s look at what we just said in more detail. The “rule” has three parts: 1. the voiceless “s”, 2. the voiced “s”, and 3. the added syllable.

1. The voiceless “s”:

For example, the letter “s” of the plural of the noun and of the third person singular of some verbs is pronounced like the voiceless “s” in Sam, sandwich, silly, soup, talks, hits etc. when the noun or verb ends in a voiceless consonant sound.

The following voiceless consonant sounds are usually represented by the letters: p as in the word tops, t as in the word tots, k as in the word socks, f as in the word cuffs, th as in the words lengths and baths (la “zeta castellana” – como en la palabra taza y caza). The voiceless sound of the letters “th” has the IPA symbol (.

Listen to some words with the voiceless S sound

This “rule” is not difficult. We write it here so you can understand the language better. When you speak, you will have to follow the “rule”. Your mouth won’t let you put a voiced sound after a voiceless consonant sound.

…

2. The voiced “s”:

The letter “s” of the plural of a noun and of the third person singular of some verbs is voiced (sounds like the “z” of zoo) when the noun ends in one of the voiced consonant sounds usually represented by the letters: b as in the word robes, d as in the word beds, g as in the word logs, l as in the word walls, n as in the word pans, ( as in the word ring, r as in the word cars, v as in the word stoves, m in the word farms, th as in the word lathes. The voiced sound of the letters “th” has the IPA symbol ). (algo como la d castellana de “helado”)

The “s” is also voiced when it follows a vowel sound such as in the following cases: mamas, bays, teas, logos, boos.

Also, the “strange” English vowels are followed by a voiced “s” such as in the words: furs, papers, paws.

And the plural of nouns ending in a diphthong sound (a sound made up of two vowels) also end in a voiced “s” sound, for example in the words: plows, days, boys .

Just like the “rule” of the voiceless “s”, this one also is not difficult. When you speak, your mouth won’t let you put a voiceless sound after a voiced consonant sound or a vowel.

We are talking about the consonant sounds and the vowel sounds in these “rules”, not of the letters that sometimes represent them. This is because English spelling does not always help us with the pronunciation.

What does help is the IPA. This is the moment we begin to present the symbols of the IPA, the International Phonetic Alpabet. We have started with the symbols (, (, and . They will help you to have a clear idea of the pronunciation of a word that you look up in a good dictionary that uses these signs.

Why do we say that the spelling doesn’t help? The two words think and this both begin with the letters “th”. But the beginning sound is different in the two words . If we use the IPA symbols there is no problem. The word this starts with the symbol for the voiced sound . And the word think starts with the symbol for the voiceless sound.

Sure, it is always better to listen to a native speaker but sometimes you don’t have one around. For example, when you look up a word in the dictionary you will know how to pronounce it if the dictionary has the IPA symbols.

3. The added syllable:

When the word, whether it be a noun or a verb, ends in an “s” sound, or any “sibiilant” or “buzzing” sound, an extra syllable (the letters “es”) is added to the verb. The extra syllable has the sound of the “short i” that you saw above in the section on the vowels. This is the sound of the words bit, fix, his, Miss etc.

For example the singular nouns: face, kiss, ash, lunch, rose, judge, add “es” in the plural and turn out as faces, kisses, ashes, lunches, roses, judges.

Be alert in your listening to the radio, TV, and native speakers. Listen to all the words given above and other similar words until you can distinguish them and say them yourself.

Review the “rule”
The first part of the “rule”: the voiceless “s”

The second part of the “rule”: the voiced “s”

The third part of the “rule”: the added syllable

Frank Gerace Ph.D has worked in Latin America in UN and national Educational and Communication Projects, and has taught in Bolivian and Peruvian Universities. He currently teaches English in New York City at La Guardia College/CUNY. He provides resources on accent reduction and the proper American English accent at http://www.GoodAccent.com He also maintains resources for Spanish Speaking learners of English at http://www.LeerEsPoder.com/TuLibro.htm