‘Since English is not a phonetic language there is not always a one-on-one relationship between the letters in the English alphabet and spoken sounds. This lack of one on one correspondence can cause problems when you want to pronounce English words correctly.
The 26 letters in the English (Roman) alphabet make more than 26 sounds. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, American English has 25 consonant sounds and up to 18 vowel sounds (the exact number of sounds may vary from region to region). That adds up to about 43 sounds.
What this means is that many consonants and vowels have more than one sound. The position of a consonant or vowel within a word will frequently determine the way it sounds. One example of this is the consonant S.
When you are speaking English the consonant S can represent several different sounds. The sound of the S is determined by its location within a word. Here are two examples.
In the word soups the S sounds like /s/.
In the word lives the S sounds like /z/.
Here are four rules or patterns that you can use to help you decide how to pronounce the letter S.
1. When an S follows a voiceless consonant such as a P or a T, it is pronounced as /s/. Examples include stops, eats and likes.
2. When an S follows a voiced consonant such as a G or a D, it is pronounced as /z/. Examples include eggs, lids and boils.
3. Most of the time a double SS will be pronounced as /s/ . Examples include essay, lesson and class.
4. Sometimes double SS will be pronounce as a /z/. Examples include dessert. scissors and possess.
The fact that S has more than one sound can be very confusing when you are trying to pronounce English from a written text! Correct pronunciation can sometimes be a problem even for native speakers!
Other consonants that have more than one sound are the T, TH and word final ED.
Please log in to next week’s column when I’ll discuss the many sounds of the consonant T.
Susan Ryan is an American English pronunciation teacher and accent reduction coach. She currently lives in South Florida. Read more articles by Susan at http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/
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