🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓You can start with the article about the /s/ sound: soundsamerican.net/article/consonant_sound_s_as_in_sun
You asked me to write a comment. You asked for it! After 30 years living in America, finally I pronounce S correctly! Waw. I love America because I love you and your priceless efforts!
Hi there, Rule 1 When an s follows a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced as /s/ Rule 2 When an s follows a voiced consonant or a vowel, it is pronounced as a /z/ Rule3 Double s is pronounced as /s/ Rule4 An extra syllable is added to words that end with certain consonant sounds followed by s. The final s is pronounced as /z/. - g -sh -ch -s, ss, c -x Hope that helps :)
Excellent! By the way, we have a video about these rules: How to Pronounce Words with '-s' Endings ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hde9Sg75Nn4.html
@@luquitasramiro Went to a speech pathologist, went to a dentist. Got consultations. In the end, I was told it's a dental problem and a misaligned bite or something. Gotta get braces. Oh well.
It would be great if the video have contained a picture with mentioned mouth parts (like an alveolar ridge) and corresponding designations. It could be easier to recognize an exact tongue position. Thank you for your job!
+Денис ВасилевскийYes, it would be! :) Wait, this is exactly what this video is about: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6hWPXaPXrnQ.html 😉.
Now -when I have googled an alveolar ridge position - this part of the video looks natural and easy understandable, but when I was watching the video the first time on my mobile I thought the finger pointed just on an air flow direction. Perhaps, it's only me having problems with comprehension. The first comment wasn't an attempt to interfere in your way of teachin (actually, a do believe it's great) but a little feedback :)
Денис Василевский, Oh, now we see. We do like your feedback! In fact, we used to denote the speech organs positions in our earlier videos, have a look: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q5a2-KuHkBU.html Now we’re trying to make our videos a little shorter and less boring. But we’ll try to find a way to include this information in a concise way.
@@SoundsAmerican The second finger and the denotation in the link above seem to me very helpful. This is exactly what I was thinking of:) I do appreciate your attitude to the job you do!
I love these videos. Thank you for your work. 91% of the world’s population may have a VERSION of this sound. Here is what I mean. Slavic languages have two ways of pronouncing the sound S. 1. Tip of the tongue either touching or pointing to lower teeth. So, the American word STRESS pronounced this way by a Russian speaker sounds with a horrific lisp. Russian ASTRA (a kind of a flower) or SAUNA (sauna) are hence quite lispy for an American ear. 2. Tongue to gum ridge (like you explained in the video). That S (with the tongue to the gum ridge) is very rare in Russian. I can’t even think of an example on the fly. But I know it exists because my Slavic students are able to produce it once I explain the difference to them. So, students beware. Tongue to gum ridge! Or you risk sounding with a lisp.
Until I was 11, I used to pronounce the phoneme /s/ completely wrong. The sound I would use doesn’t even exist in speech. I’d make a quick breath out my nose, and it was like a sniffing sound but through a brief exhalation. For /z/, I would do the same thing while vibrating my vocal chords. It’s likely what caused me to have a nasal accent when I was a little kid. My dad tried to teach me how to correctly pronounce /s/ when I was 8, but I couldn’t do it. It’s a good thing my speech teacher helped me when I was 11 in 5th grade. Now when I try to pronounce /s/ and /z/ like that to see how I used to sound, it sounds even worse because it’s unnatural to me now that I can say those two phonemes the right way.
Thanks a lot! You see, I started taking advanced English lessons this morning, the problem was that they were virtual lessons due to the quarantine. I'm not gonna lie, I learned more in these past 15 minutes than the hour and half virtual lessons had done this morning. Grateful a lot!
You're very welcome and thanks for sharing! We condensed a lot of information in our videos as the longer the video the more tired you may get. :) Glad it was helpful and let us know if you have any questions!
Yeah you right I noticed that sometime I tent add an (e) when I pronounce ( Special )..I guess bc in spanish we say (especial):)...thanks for help! I'm improving....
There are so many ways of pronouncing /S/ sounds as below (Name of RU-vidr):The way to pronounce /s/ sound (Sounds American): this sound is made by partially blocking the air flowing between the tip of your tongue and your alveolar ridge. (Emma) :the blade of your tongue, not the tip of your tongue, comes up to the alveolar ridge. (Denise) :the front part of the tongue is raised a little bit towards the roof of my mouth. It is near the ridge which is just behind my front teeth. When I say the front of my tongue, I do not mean the tip. (EEP.): there's two options actually. Your tongue could be touching the back of the top of your teeth, or it could be touching the back of the bottom of your teeth. (Rachel) : There are two ways to make these sounds. One, with the tip of the tongue down, lightly touching the back of the bottom front teeth. Or by pointing the tip of the tongue up. You may find that the position of the tongue tip depends on the sounds around the S and Z. I am very confused. When I pronounce /s/ as in 'sit', using Sounds American's method, it's not easy for to move into correct /I/ as in 'it' where the tip of the tongue should be lowered just behind the bottom front teeth. Could you make a comment on this please?
Wow, that's really impressive research! Kudos to you! Based on our experience, most students find it easier to learn the /s/ pronunciation the way we teach it. Especially those ones who confuse the /s/ and the /ʃ/ sounds, because the key difference between these two sounds is exactly the position of the tip and the blade of your tongue. If you don't have any problems with distinguishing between the /s/ and the /ʃ/, you can pronounce the /s/ they way you like it better. 👋🖖🤗
Awesome video, I didn't realize the way I pronounced the /s/. Looking forward to the /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ videos, I thought they were the same sound. Səludəs! 👋😂 (hahahah I love when you speak Spanish 😂😁)
Hello! Great video! I have a similar question! I watched your non stop... but still confused. Could you please help? If i pronounce word cat there's a little puff comes out non stop means not puff at all even a little my puff isn't the same as t in the beginning but at the end little goes out is this the right way?
Not 100% sure we understand your question, but it's okay to pronounce final stop sounds with a slight puff of air, especially when you practice words in isolation. Remember, however, that in connected speech there shouldn't be any puff: 'a cat in a hat.'
+Nick Bogdanov Np! Some dictionaries don't use the IPA, so it may be very confusing. Note, however, that the /i/ in the word "slip" is a tense sound and it's never "long".
I have a little lisp pronouncing this sound. And you said at the beginning of the video that the tongue shouldn't touch the the alveolar ridge. And I have no idea how to do it without touching that. Specifically after "L", "N", "T," and "D" sounds. So, do you have any advice how to fix this issue? Anyways thanks for this great channel!
Hello there! This is quite a common difficulty and the good news is that it's totally fixable. When you touch the alveolar ridge with the tip of your tongue, you stop the air - that's how the /t/, /d/, /l/, and /n/ sounds are pronounced. To pronounce the /s/ sound, you have to let the air pass through. And to do this, you need to lower the tip of your tongue just a little. Try this: pronounce the /t/ sound and watch how the air stops right at the tip of your tongue. Then try to push the air through. At some point you will feel the air pressing against the tip. Try to make a tiny groove at the tip of your tongue to let the air pass through. You may need to do it several different ways until it happens. Then try to pull the tip of your tongue just a little lower until you feel the airflow passing over the tip. That's the /s/ sound. When you get a good feeling and understanding of how it works, try pronouncing the pairs of sounds with a pause in between: /l/ - /s/, /n/ - /s/, /t/ - /s/, /d/ - /s/. With some regular practice, you'll learn to hear and make the difference between those sounds. Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes!
@@SoundsAmerican I don't make a groove pronouncing "s" sound instead I put my tongue in "L" position touching the alveolar ridge and keep it that way and let the air go by sides. I suppose my way to pronounce "s" sound is lateral, to say specifically.
Just in case - if you have lisp when pronouncing the /s/ sound, our exercises might help if you practice regularly. However, if you have lisp in general, including when you speak your native language, then you need to work with a speech therapist, as such cases need to be treated individually.
It's been months since I started learning American accent and your videos are really helpful. Infact your channel is one of the best american accent training channels. But you haven't been uploading anything.
Hello there! The letter 'X' can be pronounced several different ways in English, most often as /k+s/ or /g+z/ sounds. Check out these articles on our website: soundsamerican.net/articles?tag=blog&tag=letter_x
Thanks a lot for the info. The slides that show the place of the articulation of /S/ are very useful. I am wondering how the flow of air would be for the tip-down /S/ sound.
Strictly speaking Spanish speakers do misspronounce the s sound in Spanish. We'd say [s̺] instead of [s]. And I can't figure out the difference... Edit: I am speaking about Iberian Spanish.
Great video! You should speak Spanish more often, I'd love to listen to you speaking Spanish. Fortunately, I already knew how to pronounce the /s/ sound :) What's tour name, by the way? :) Mine starts with S, so it's not a big deal xD
+Saúl Iván Thank you, glad you liked it! Well, we need to work on our Spanish :), by the way, we like it a lot! Our accent leaves to be desired, though 😂. Our name starts with "S' too - Sounds American 😜 (team).
Bonjour, je ne comprends pas votre transcription phonétique pour le mot saw: dans le dictionnaire Cambridge, c’est un a long représenté comme ceci : /a:/ alors que ce n’est pas le symbole que vous avez indiqué, j’aimerais comprendre puisque je m’adapte à la transcription phonétique pour bien prononcer et lorsque c’est différent du dictionnaire, je ne comprends pas, j’apprécierais beaucoup que vous donniez suite à ma question. Merci beaucoup, c’est très intéressant votre formation!
We don't use this symbol as in American English, the vowel length depends on the following consonant. We talk about this in detail in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GQa9w__GqLc.html Check it out and let us know if you have any questions!
We're using our own app, but we haven't released it to the public yet. We're planning to do it very soon and we'll announce the release on this channel. Stay tuned!
Why do a lot of Americans pronounce words like 'sting' with an 'S' sound, but 'string' with an 'Sh' sound? As soon as that 'st' is followed by 'r', the pronunciation of the 's' changes to 'sh'. I hear it all the time, 'sh-tring, sh-tream, sh-trong, sh-tretch, sh-troke, sh-traight' and so on.
I think in English when I write and read a word but it isn't the same so a word has ' s ' maybe pronounce /s/ or /z/ because it belongs to pronunciation not belongs to the letter in the alphabet
Short anwer: no, the /s/ sound doesn't sound like /ʃ/ in these words. Long answer: these two consonants are confused very often. The main reason is that they are pronounced very close to each other in the mouth: the /s sound is made at your alveolar ridge, but the /ʃ/ is pronounced a little bit further, at the roof of your mouth. About the words like "scratch" or "scream" - what may happen is that you hear the aspiration (strong noise made when you pronounce the /s/ sound) and mistake it for the /ʃ/.
+kosmonauta No, these are different sounds. The /eɪ/ is a high front vowel, but the /ɛ/ is a mid front vowel. It means that you need to raise your tongue higher in your mouth for the /eɪ/ sound than for the /ɛ/. Check out this Interactive Vowel Chart where we list all American English vowels. You can click on each vowel and see how it's pronounced. ► Vowel Sound /eɪ/, as "make" - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7EdRAfOMfnU.html ► Vowel Sound /ɛ/, as “bed” - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7EdRAfOMfnU.html And here's a video in which we compare these two sounds: ►Taste or Test? Date or Debt? American English Pronunciation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-29AKpIou3kM.html Hope it helps!
+Lenta Lenta The /eɪ/ is a high front vowel, but the /ɛ/ is a mid front vowel. It means that you need to raise your tongue higher in your mouth for the /eɪ/ sound than for the /ɛ/. The /æ/ is a low front vowel, you need to open your mouth as much as possible and to place your tongue very low in your mouth. The /ə/ is a central vowel sound, to pronounce it, you need to place your tongue in the center of your mouth. This sound occurs in unstressed syllables only. We have videos for all these sounds, check them out: ► Vowel Sound /eɪ/, as "make" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0RXzfRcjk-s3.html ► Vowel Sound /ɛ/, as "bed" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OLG3cCLcNiI.html ► Vowel Sound /æ/, as "cat"ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mynucZiy-Ug.html ► Vowel Sound /ə/, as "ago" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m1mDSUSwNls.html It may be useful if you play with our Interactive Vowel Chart, it's best to watch this video on your computer. There's a chart with all vowel sounds of American English and you can compare them using the animations. Here's a link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7EdRAfOMfnU.html
No, they don't. Your mouth should be open slightly when you pronounce the /s/ sound, as you need to release a stream of air with friction. Here's more detail: soundsamerican.net/article/consonant_sound_s_as_in_sun
+nan yan Yes, the 's' is pronounced as the voiceless /s/ sound when it occurs at the beginning of words and before voiceless consonants, for example, "sun," "test." In other positions in words, it's pronounced either the /s/ or as the /z/ sounds. Unfortunately, there are no strict rules, so we recommend consulting a dictionary to check the pronunciation. Hope it helps!
@@SoundsAmerican 😂btw this is the most difficult sounds to me, not only in English, also in other languages I know, because I lisp this sound. You said not to touch the alveolar ridge, but I do it always all my life
Rare Visitor you can try to make the sound touching your down teeth a bit with the tip of your tongue, so you won't accidentally reach the alveolar ridge with it
+Rare Visitor Thanks for your question! It makes sense that you lisp this sound, given that you are putting your tongue on your hard palate. When you put your tongue on your hard palate it blocks the air from flowing out the front of your mouth (which it should) and it forces and diverts the air around and out of the sides of your mouth, which creates the lisp. Instead, try lowering your tongue from your hard palate (don't touch!) when making this sound and it should sound better. Thanks! Please, let us know if it works and you're able to do it.
+ZHONGRUI WANG It's our own app, we haven't released it to the public yet, but we're working hard to make it happen. We'll announce the release on this channel. Stay tuned!
I have a question, if you don't mind: I noticed that sometimes a sound 't' is often disappeared in AmEn in words like disappoiNTing, where there are 'NT' clusters. Is this correct?
+Rare Visitor It's a great question and you're right. In casual speech, the /t/ sound is often dropped after the /n/, it also sometimes happens with the /d/ sound, in words like "sandwich." We talked about it in our Stop Sounds Overview video, check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yFPbLcUCraQ.html Let us know if you have further questions (or any at all)!
To speak about the competitors, have you ever heard about this book guys? ::: www.amazon.com/Mastering-American-Accent-Lisa-Mojsin/dp/1438008104/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QJRKKQAJ19NV1D4W5JVG Been thinking whether or not it's worth buying, not that it costs a lot of money it's just the delivery to Tokyo will cost me almost as much as the book itself so I'm kinda curious whether the book is worth buying or not. P.S. Sorry for this off topic question, piece
I sound like. A snake after practice with this video. Maybe it is because I tend to pronounce s by touching my tip of the tougue on my alveolar ridge, but I have fixed this mistake after watching this video.
@@SoundsAmerican if u don’t touch the alveolar ridge or any part of the mouth how do u even make a snake u have to touch a part of ur mouth to make an s sound
Same sat saw say scene scrap scratch scream script seed seek send sing sky sleep ask assign assist best disappear dislike distant domestic dust eastern hospital icicle instal massage person advice audience balance bounce chance circus course dress entrance fox juice nice purpose twice us
+sghaier mohamed +Saúl Iván Hello there! Yes, so busted! 😜 Saul Ivan is right, the word "English" is linked to the word "speakers" and what you hear is the aspiration from the /ʃ/ sound mixed with the aspiration of the /s/ sound.
+Saúl Iván 😊 Actually, we plan to do it, but later, after we cover the fundamentals. Connected speech, melody, and intonations are all big topics and they are often harder for beginners. So, as we usually say, stay tuned! 😊🖖
Hi! Any luck to see and hear in your videos sentences & verses exercises in the future? In other book sources for learning pronunciation it's cover 2/3 of exercises and I really think it's practical. Thank you again.
