These are the two consonant sounds
we're going to focus on first it's /s/ as in
'Sue' and /z/ as in 'zoo'. So these two
sounds are similar but of course they're
different. Why are they similar?
Because the position of the tongue
in the mouth is exactly the same in both
sounds. The only difference between the
two sounds is that one of them is voiced
and one of them is unvoiced.
What does this mean? The 's' sound
the /s/ sound. I'd like you to make the
sound /s/ Like a snake. And just touch
your throat as you make the sound. /s/ /s/ You
cannot feel any vibration from your
throat. But if you touch your throat and
talk naturally, like I'm doing now, you
can feel a vibration in
your throat. This vibration is your
voice making a sound. So the 's' sound
/s/ is unvoiced because there's no vibration. However the /z/ sound is voiced. Try making
the /z/ sound like a bee buzzing and touch your throat again. /z/ Now you can feel a
vibration when you make the sound /z/ That is the only difference between the two
sounds. And if you don't believe me,
switch between the two sounds. /s/ /z/ /s/ /z/
You can feel the difference in the
voiced and the unvoiced sound. So
unvoiced is /s/ the first sound, voiced is /z/ the second sound. Sue, zoo. This is the
big difference between the two sounds. Now, look at the shape of the lips: the
lips are neutral /s/ and we are actually
using the inside of our mouth, our tongue
to make the sound. The air pushes
through and makes the /s/ sound. Let's
look at the word list for /s/ Listen as
always and repeat each word after me.
Stop. Sister. Socks. Rice. Piece. Exciting.
Smallest. Six. Spaghetti. Did you notice
the spellings? Very often it's the 's' spelling of course in
English. However sometimes we spell the
words with a 'c'. So sometimes like for
example rice R-I-C-E the sound is /s/
rice. Now another spelling you may have
noticed is 'x' 'x'. 'x' contains the /s/ sound
because the letter 'x' actually represents
the /k/ sound and the /s/ sound pushed together. If you can hear,
S-I-X you can listen to the 'x' sound: six six. The 'x' actually contains the 's'
sound as well very often in English
spelling. So keep that in mind. Now let's
look at the next sound. The /z/ sound which is represented by the letter 'z'.
Remember this is the voiced sound. The
position of your tongue and your mouth
is exactly the same, the only difference
is it's voiced. So let's have a look at
the target sound practice list. Listen as
always and repeat. Zoo. Ears. Was. Please.
Buzz. New Zealand. Doesn't. Animals.
Scissors. Fantastic. Now in the
spelling I hope you noticed there's of
course lots of 'z' letters for
example zoo Z-O-O. But there's also many
examples of 's' isn't there? Now, the 's'
letter in English can be sounded like /s/ or
/z/ It depends on the word. Sometimes it's /s/ and sometimes it's /z/ at the end of a word.
When the /z/ sound is appropriate, for
example ears E-A-R-S ears, the /z/ sound is not
so strong like it is at the beginning. So
listen to the difference: zoo, ears.
The 'z' sound at the beginning and the
end of a word is very slightly different.
At the beginning it's stronger: zoo. It's
much easier to hear: zoo. But when the 'z'
the 'z' sound is at the end of a word /z/ ears ears, it's not as forceful, not as
strong. Keep that in mind. Let's move on to the minimal pairs. This
is really going to help you notice the
difference between the two sounds. On the
left we have the /s/ sound and on the right we have the /z/ sound. Listen and repeat.
Bus, buzz. Peace, peas. Ice, eyes. Sip, zip. Sue, zoo. Price, prize. I hope that's opened your
eyes to the difference between the two
sounds. Let's move on to the target
sounds in use. The first sentence
contains many many examples of the /s/ sound.
Listen and repeat after me. Sam saw
six scary snakes at the pet store.
Well done. The second sentence contains
examples of the /z/
sound. Remember even though the spelling is /s/ sometimes we pronounce it with a
/z/ sound. So listen and repeat after me.
Thousands of busy bees buzz around
flowers. And sentence three contains
a mix of the two sounds. Listen and
repeat. The zoo we visited was fantastic.
We saw zebras, kangaroos, elephants and
skunks. That completes the first
consonant lecture. Let's move on to the
next lecture.
Before you jump ahead, make sure you look at the next video
and download the PDF and MP3s.