American English Letter S Pronounced z
This video comes to you from Dillon, Colorado,
where I’m spending Christmas with my family.
I’m going to introduce you to my cousin and
my cousin’s husband. Do you notice anything
interesting about how those words are pronounced?
If not, stay tuned.
Hi, I’m Rachel’s cousin Nikki.
I’m Rachel’s cousin’s husband, Steve.
Did you notice how they pronounced the
words ‘cousin’ and ‘husband’? Listen again.
Hi, I’m Rachel’s cousin Nikki.
I’m Rachel’s cousin’s husband, Steve.
Did you notice how they pronounced the S as
a Z sound? This is actually quite common in
American English. I’ve done a video on how
to pronounce plural nouns. There are many
cases there where the final S will be pronounced
as a final Z. The same rules apply to third
person verb conjugations. But in the words
‘cousin’ and ‘husband’, they’re not plural
nouns, and they’re not third person verb conjugations.
They’re simply words where the S is pronounced
as a Z. Unfortunately, there are no rules
to tell you why the S is pronounced as a Z.
But there are a whole slew of words where
this is the case, and they just have to be
memorized.
Two days ago, my cousin’s husband Steve took
me snowboarding. Unfortunately, because I’m
not very good at it, I fell many times. And
I’ve ended up with a huge bruise on my knee.
Both knees, actually. Did you notice? Because,
with a Z. But also, did you notice, bruise.
Spelled with an S, pronounced with a Z.
Don’t believe her, she did an excellent
job. Do believe her about the bruise, though.
Yes, the bruise is, is not a lie.
Other words where the S is pronounced as a
Z: is, his, use. Now, let’s stop for a minute
and talk about use. In verb form, the S in
‘use’ is pronounced as a Z. But when it’s
a noun, use, it’s pronounced as an S. So that’s
one way you can differentiate between which
form of the word is being used. This also
applies to a few other words, for example,
house. As a noun it is an S, and as a verb,
house, it is a Z. Was, design, lose. These
are just some of the many words where the
S will be pronounced as a Z. Special thanks
to my cousin and her husband for being in
this video with me. That’s it, and thanks
so much for using Rachel’s English.