English Pronunciation The Letter S 5 Ways to Pronounce S in English

hello and welcome back to easy English with James today we're going to learn all about the letter in English now the letter is the 19th letter in the English alphabet it is consonant letter and there are four main ways that we pronounce this letter in English so if you want to make sure you're pronouncing this letter perfectly let's begin thank you okay the first way that we can pronounce this letter in English is one that you probably already know it is the sound sound it's an unvoiced sound that means that we don't use our voice box or vocal chords and it's really interesting sound in English because different people make this sound in different ways normally we just touch the teeth together like this but different people use different sides of the mouth some people use this side and some people use this side generally use this side so practice with me so let's have look at some words where we hear this sound at the beginning words like say or summer or sound sound or even set okay set say summer sound and set see if you can say them quickly say summer sound set say summer sound and set now let's try when this sound is in the middle of word words like basic basic basic or awesome awesome or even more advanced words like nuisance nuisance this actually has two of those sounds in it okay new Sun nuisance nuisance if you know what that word means write it in the comments Below in sentence if you can nuisance nuisance so we have basic awesome and nuisance basic awesome and nuisance now when you see two letter s's in the middle of words it's exactly the same as when you see one in the middle of words look at words like message message message message or possible possible possible or even lessen lesson like this lesson so two s's same sound as One just and finally we have the letter at the end of words like bus bus or gas gas or this this difficult one because you've got that sound first this this and of course words like yes yes each of those has that at the end okay so go back and practice when it's at the beginning and in the middle and at the end until you're perfectly comfortable with that sound now in English words can be either singular or plural singular or plural that means when we talk about one thing it's singular when there are many of something it's plural and the letter changes depending on the final sound of plural word look at for example the word chief chief this word ends in that sound okay when word ends in that sound the plural with the will be pronounced also as so one Chief becomes two chiefs Chiefs Chiefs okay one Chief Two Chiefs this is the same for words that end in sound one duck becomes two ducks ducks one duck two ducks also when words end in sound one cup two cups one cup two cups and sound one student two students it's difficult sound because it's kind of tea with really close together students students okay and finally when words end in that very difficult th the voiceless th month month becomes months one month two months one month two months so remember words that end in or or or or if you see word end in those sounds that means that the in the plural will be pronounced okay so practice those as many times as you need to this rule also applies to third person singular present tense verbs what does that mean that means that if say something like laugh laugh it ends in that sound laugh but if want to say he or she or it laughs again because the final sound is that means the next sound must be so laugh but he laughs laugh he laughs think he thinks thinks because it ends in that sound think he or she or it thinks help she helps help she helps get she gets get she gets okay and again this rule also also applies when we're using possessives in English we use possessives to describe something that belongs to someone else or to someone okay so if say this bike belongs to Matt can also just use possessive this is Matt's bike Matt's bike and because Matt ends in the next letter will be pronounced Matt's bike this is Matt's bike the pyramids that belong to Egypt we can just say Egypt's pyramids Egypt's pyramids Egypt's pyramids okay or finally the flavor of the soup we would just say the soups flavor the soups flavor because soup ends in so the next that letter will be the soups flavor so try this amazing practice sentence if you want to master this sound sitting on the street sipping soup in the summer at sunset sitting on the street sipping soup in the summer at Sunset okay sitting on the street sipping soup in the summer at Sunset see how fast you can say that sentence or even try this one Matt's Sony stereo sounds sweet Matt's Sony stereo sounds sweet Matt's Sony stereo sounds sweet now you might have noticed that in there is the word sounds sounds and this ends in sound and unlike words that end in this word ends in duh and for any other word that doesn't end in those or sounds we use different pronunciation for this letter we don't say sounds like that we actually use and this is the second way that we can pronounce this letter in English as what's the difference well for one this sound is voiced we are vibrating our vocal chords and words like sound when we use them in for example the third person or when we use the plural sounds sounds it is sound Sounds sounds not sounds but sounds so make sure you remember that rule words that end in they will always have that sound all other words will have that sound sounds okay some examples are the word pen which in the plural would be pens pens because it doesn't end in any of those previous sounds like it ends in pen pen pen pen so there we must have pens pens also Shu Shu this ends in vowel sound so words that end in that vowel sound they also take this sound one shoe becomes two shoes shoes one shoe two shoes one bug two bugs one bug two bugs one toy two toys one toy two toys okay and again this is the same for verbs in the third person singular present tense words like come which end in that sound come they also will take that sound come he comes she comes it comes okay drive he drives this is difficult because you've got two voice sounds next to each other you've got that followed by so it's drive she drives drive he drives give he gives gives watch closely with that gives gives give she gives and finally words like tell tell becomes she he or it tells tells tell but he tells tells and again this is also the same for possessives so if want to say the people of Germany could say Germany's people and because Germany ends in German knee the next sound will be Germany's people we don't say Germany's people we say Germany's people Germany's people or even England where I'm from England ends in sound England's people England's people the people of England England's people now the letter is often pronounced as in really small words in English think of words like as or his or does or was or is as does was and his okay as does was and his all very small words and they end in an but we don't pronounce it we pronounce it as does was and his also the very popular word is is okay is it is he is she is make sure that you're not making very common pronunciation mistake here many Learners of English actually pronounce simple words like is with that sound and that's not correct it should always be okay it is he is she is there is okay is is is say that thousand times until you know it absolutely perfectly is is is okay along with as and does and his and was you'll also see the letter pronounced as in words that end in the letters words like wise wise the wise man or choose choose choose and also these these wise with that at the end choose and these these so watch out for words that end in like that Wise choose and these try this sentence his wise friends proposed that he comes to the game when he pleases his wise friends proposed that he comes to the games when he pleases and you'll notice that last word please is has two plea ziz please is pleases his wise friends proposed that he comes to the game when he pleases okay now the letter can also be pronounced as sh just like at the beginning of the word shoe you have that sh sound and it's very often that the letter when it comes with the letter in words like sure or sugar we don't say saw or saga we say sure or sugar okay in many words in English where you see followed by the letter you will find that that letter and is pronounced sure and sugar this is also the case in words that end in s-i-o-n or s-i-a-l words like Dimension Diamond Shin Dimension or extension extension they both end in s-i-o-n so we say shh Dimension extension and also controversial that's nice Advanced English word controversial controversial controversial ends in s-i-a-l controversial so again we pronounce that with that sh sound controversial try this sentence sure the sugar from the controversial extension dimension sure the sugar from the controversial extension Dimension try that sentence and you'll be able to practice that as all the way through okay now sometimes words that end in s-i-o-n the is not pronounced as sh it's actually pronounced as and this is the fourth way that we can pronounce this letter in English look at words like Vision Vision or decision or Collision here the is pronounced sound is very very similar to the sound but again it's voiced Vision Collision decision okay Vision collision and decision and we are nearly coming to the conclusion of this video the conclusion is something at the end so conclusion the conclusion conclusion okay now you can actually practice both of these two different s-i-o-n pronunciations together and it might help it stick in your memory so you could say something like the conclusion of my vision was in the controversial Dimension the conclusion of my vision with AJ was of controversial with shh Dimension Dimension also with the conclusion of my vision was of controversial Dimension you practice that one now the fifth way that we can pronounce the letter in English is by not pronouncing it at all it is silent sound silent letter there's not many words in English with silent but did find some if you know any more feel free to write them in the comments below and help out your fellow students but here are some that found aisle Isle walking down the aisle like at wedding the aisle you also have this word Isle in supermarkets the supermarket Isles Isles words like debris debris or island island live on an island okay Island also words like rendezvous rendezvous and Chassis chassis Rendezvous and Chassis okay also some American states have really weird pronunciations pronunciations like Arkansas or Illinois Illinois okay both of these have silent Arkansas or Illinois Illinois okay now the letter is sometimes combined with other consonant letters for example it can be combined with the letter when you see and together other it usually means the is silent and that means that we just pronounce the in words like Psalm Psalm or psychology psychology Psalm and psychology here the is silent if you want little bit more help with silent check out my video up here on the letter okay if you want to master pronunciation of that sound now you'll also find the letter often comes with the letter and there are three different ways that we can pronounce this the first is as that sound again in words like science science or scent or scissors love this word for practicing sounds because there's so many scissors scissors you've got the star with that and but it's just pronounced si si and then you've got two scissors scissors scissors my scissors for cutting hair scissors now the letters and can sometimes also be pronounced shh that sound from the shoe in words like conscience conscience my conscience or fascism fascism conscience and fascism here it's pronounced with sh okay and finally the letters and can also be pronounced as like in scale scale or school school or even score score what is the score what's the score and then of course the most common combination is the letter and when these come together it's nearly always pronounced as in words like wash wash or cash cash or shoe shoe or shop shop and she she okay so and Shoe Shop she okay cash and wash now there's really cool tongue twister you could try with the sh you can try this she should shop for shoes in shoe shop she should shop for shoes in shoe shop she should shop for shoes in shoe shop okay practice that and you'll probably have much better grasp of that sound she should shop for shoes in shoe shop okay talking of tongue twisters one of the most famous tongue twisters for the letter is this one she sells seashells by the seashore the seashells she sells are seashells I'm sure and this is brilliant for practicing all of the different pronunciations in English so want you to try it with me she sells seashells by the seashore the seashells she sells are seashells I'm sure she sells seashells by the seashore the seashell she sells are seashells I'm sure okay give that one lots of practice and you'll Master the letter perfectly okay now finally the letter can sometimes change pronunciations depending on what type of word it is whether it's noun or an adjective or verb so look at words like abuse abuse this is noun abuse but if we use this word as verb abuse abuse it changes the letter in the noun abuse is the letter is but in the verb abuse it's with so you have abuse with us on the noun and abuse with verb okay this is also the same in words like close the adjective he is close to me close here you can hear that again close but if we use this as verb close close close the door close the window close close close close close Okay you can see again when it's an adjective it's with us but when it's verb it's with the this is the same with words like house and house house is noun it's place where you live but we also in English have verb to house to house someone means to give someone house to put someone in house to house the verb with the noun house with the same for use and use the use of something use but the verb to use is again with that use so when it's verb remember you use the but when it's noun we mostly use okay so let's finish off with one more tongue twister which hope will allow you to practice everything in this video try this Susan and Simon's sock shop surely doesn't sell shirts Susan and Simon's sock shop surely doesn't sell shirts Susan and Simon's sock shop surely doesn't sell shirts practice that go back and watch the video again and practice all of the words and all of the pronunciations for this letter and promise your English pronunciation will improve okay thank you again for joining me for this lesson really hope you enjoyed it if you did enjoy it then please like And subscribe to this video and if you really want to help out you can head on over to Kofi where you can support me by buying me coffee okay thanks very much for all of your support for previous videos and I'll see you again for the next video which will be the letter okay bye-bye thank you