Pronunciation of -S Endings

Objectives of today’s lesson:

In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Pronunciation of the -S Endings”, in order to:

• simple present or present simple
• third person singular
• singular or plural form

Video Script:

Hello and welcome to this video dedicated to the pronunciation of the -S endings.

Now, at the end of my third person singular in the simple present or at the end of my noun in the plural

I will find an “-S” in most cases.

How do I pronounce this “-S”? Shall I pronounce it /z/ /s/ /iz/? Now let’s discover together the rules which are based on sound and not on spelling, which will help us anticipate the pronunciation of the ending. So let’s start off with the second column: /s/.

These sounds:
/k/
/f/
/t/
and /p/
are what we call voiceless.

There is no vibration. There is a lot of air. (Examples). So after those sounds we need to pronounce the “-S”: /s/. So there is air. Do you see?
(Examples)
That’s one way of remembering it: I exhale a lot of air when I pronounce these sounds.

I also exhale air when I pronounce: /s/ so they work together. That’s quite straightforward.

The first column is quite long: /z/. Many different scenarios here. I pronounce my “-S”: /z/. So it is voiced. There is a vibration.

When I have a vibration, so let’s just say when it is not /k/, /f/, /t/ o /p/. This is the /s/ column. It’s the other rule: /z/.
So, /g/
/v/
/ŋ/
/m/
/l/
/d/, /n/ etc.
All those sounds, if there’s an “-S” sound just after. I must pronounce the ending -S: /z/.
(Examples)
So the first rule (/z/) is quite simple.

The third rule kind of overrides certain sounds.

So we listed all of the sounds except for these.

So if I have any of these sounds just before my “-S” ending, I have to pronounce my ending “-S”: /iz/. So I’ve added a vowel. There’s like an extra syllable.
(Examples)
Why is that?
Because /s/, /z/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are quite similar to /s/ and /z/. So we need a vowel to hear the ending.

That’s all for today!
Thanks for watching!

Practice Quiz:

Keywords listed in English:

• endings
• inflexions
• singular or plural form

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