The voiced and unvoiced sounds of “s” at the end of a word.

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.

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