What is the S phonetics in English?

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English pronunciation can be difficult because some letters have sounds different from those in Spanish. Moreover, the same letter often has more than one sound depending on the word it is in. Today we will show you the two ways the letter S can be pronounced.

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THE ENGLISH PHONETICS OF THE S

Among the phonemes that make up the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) are those used to represent the sounds of English phonetics. Knowing them is an infallible tool when you want to know how a word you have found is pronounced in English. In this case, we will see the phonemes that will help you know how the letter S is pronounced.

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What is the phonetics of the S in English?

THE PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF THE S IN ENGLISH

As we already told you, knowing how the S is pronounced in English is not very complicated. Firstly, the letter S, whose phonetic transcription is /s/, sounds like ‘es’ in Spanish when alone. If it is part of a word, it will sound as the S in ‘suela’ or ‘asiento’ in Spanish. Here are some examples; we will start with sail (to sail) and its phonetic transcription, /seɪl/; which is pronounced ‘seil’, just as if you read an S in Spanish. What happens when there are two consecutive S letters like in pass (to pass), /pɑːs/ and omission (omission), /əʊˈmɪʃ·ən/? Well, in the first case, the double S will sound like a Spanish S, while in the second, it will sound more vibrant, similar to the ‘sh’ sound.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Do you want to practice your English S pronunciation? Start with the examples above and these three we leave you here: send (to send), /send/; passion (passion), /ˈpæʃ·ən/; and class (class), /klɑːs/. This way, besides practicing your pronunciation, you will expand your English vocabulary.

Another good exercise is to record yourself saying words with S and then listen to how you pronounce them, so you will know if you need to make any adjustments. This will help you with any word you want to learn to pronounce!

As we already told you, it is very useful to know the IPA phonemes and we suggest learning them one or two at a time by practicing them in new words. Pronounce slowly and pay attention to how you do it. Here we have already shown you two phonemes so you can start!

Tips for pronouncing the S in English

Some people find it difficult to pronounce English words that start with ‘s’ followed by a consonant such as: student (student), school (school), scary (scary), spanish (Spanish) and spy (spy).

The reason is that Spanish-speaking students add a vowel before the ‘s’, pronouncing /estudent/ or /istudent/, for example.

The proper solution to this obstacle is to pronounce these words slowly, prolonging the ‘s’ sound, similar to the sound a snake makes, also known as hissing. This way, you will become more aware of this sound at the beginning of words and you will be able to easily suppress those vowels that do not belong there.

Practice the following sentences by prolonging the ‘s’ at the start of words:

Students in Spain study Spanish in their schools. (Students in Spain study Spanish in their schools).

Some scary spiders scared the spectators at the stadium. (Some scary spiders scared the spectators at the stadium).

Another tip that might work is to do exercises with Spanish words that start with ‘es’, suppressing the initial vowel, like this: /studiante/, /scape/, /sperar/, /spiar/, /speranza/.

You could also add the ‘s’ at the end of the previous word, for example:

She went to Spain. /ʃiː wɛnt tuːs peɪn/

In the previous sentence, the ‘s’ is added to the word to. Surely with practice you will do it better and better.

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Variations in the pronunciation of the ‘S’ in English

The following groups of words will always have the sound /s/:

Words that start with ‘s’, for example: sea (sea), sour (sour), silence (silence).
Words with –ss such as: pass (to pass), mass (mass), class (class).
Words that start with ‘s’ plus consonant, for example: speak (to speak), stay (to stay), spray (to spray).

However, some words have the sound /ʃ/, such as: Sean /ʃɔn/, sure (sure) /ʃʊr/, and sugar (sugar) /ˈʃʊgər/, which would be pronounced like ‘shan’, ‘shure’ and ‘shugar’.

The syllables ‘ci’ and ‘ce’ are also used with the sound /s/ as in the following words:

cinema (cinema) /ˈsɪnəmə/, nice (nice) /naɪs/, peace (peace) /pis/ .

Except for those syllables followed by a vowel, for example: delicious (delicious) /dɪˈlɪʃəs/ and ocean (ocean) /ˈoʊʃən/, which would be pronounced like ‘delishius’ and ‘oshean’.

Finally, when the ‘s’ is between two vowels, the corresponding sound is /z/, for example: busy (busy) /ˈbɪzi/, easy (easy) /ˈizi/, nose (nose) /noʊz/.

Next we share some sentences you can practice with:

Sean was sure he ate too much sugar at the cinema. (Sean was sure he ate a lot of sugar at the cinema).

When you are close to the sea, you can smell the ocean and feel peace. (When you are close to the sea, you can smell the ocean and feel peace).