English Pronunciation Hack: The Missing S

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, and this is a pronunciation hack lesson with the missing

"s". Okay? Now, first of all, what's a hack? A hack is a shortcut, a way for you to learn

something faster and achieve your goals sooner. Okay? And the missing "s" is something that

I have realized from teaching English to executives and international students for over 30 years,

I have realized that lots of times my clients and my students are actually saying... They

think they're saying the right thing, but it doesn't sound like that. And as a result,

what happens? They get lower grades, they don't sound as impressive, they don't sound

correct in English. And one of these errors is what I call the missing "s". Okay? And

you are going to learn how not to make this mistake so that you can get higher score if

you're going for the IELTS or the TOEFL, or if you're going for a job interview, or if

you're going to be speaking in front of an audience. Okay? As many of my clients do.

Most of my clients had to achieve results very quickly. I did not teach in the school

system where students have years to teach or to learn. I taught in corporations, I taught

executives and diplomats who needed to speak in front of important conferences and audiences.

I taught international students who needed to appear for the IELTS and the TOEFL exams.

I've taught MBA graduates who needed to go for interview... Job interviews. All very

important occasions and events, and the important part was they had to achieve results very

quickly. So, over the past 30 years as part of running a school and so on, I developed

lots of strategies that enable students to achieve results quickly, and that's what I'm

sharing with you here through my lessons. So, this is one of them, so let's get to it.

Okay? So, the missing "s" is seen in about five different situations that I've identified.

The first is contractions, the second is with possessives, the third is with plurals, the

fourth is with tenses, and then there are some other situations. So, what is this missing

"s"? Many times, students are saying the right thing, but if we don't hear this "s", it sounds

wrong because the grammar falls apart or the vocabulary falls apart. Right? So, let me

give you an example so you understand exactly. So, when we're talking about contractions,

we could divide it into pronouns, questions, and some other situations. Let's start with

pronouns. So, let's say somebody wants to say, "He's here." Now, listen carefully. He's

here. We do need to hear that extra "s" or "z" sound. Okay? And if you don't... If we

don't hear it, then we think you're not saying it, and we think that your English isn't very

good. So, instead of "He's here", if you don't say the "s", it sounds like "he here", "he

here", "he here". Okay? It doesn't sound correct. And not just from the point of view of pronunciation,

but now your grammar sounds like it's wrong. Right? So, let's work on pronouncing this

"s", okay, a little more clearly. "He's here." Next. "She's ready." Next. "It's over." Not

"it over". "It's over. It's over." Now, I'm saying it slowly at first, and then we'll

say it in a... At a regular speed. Okay? Here we go. "He's here.", "She's ready.", "It's

over." Okay? So, even though it's a contraction, which means what? A shortened form of the

word. Right? Instead of "It is over", we're saying "It's over", we still need to hear

a little bit of that "s". Otherwise, as I said, it's going to sound like your English

is incorrect, not just your accent or your pronunciation. Okay? Let's look at what happens

when we're using this "s" in questions. Repeat after me. "Who's driving?" Really focus on

saying that "s", okay? "What's your name?" "Where's his office?" Okay? Now, let's say

it in a normal speed. "Who's driving?" "What's your name?" "Where's his office?" Okay? So,

it's there. It needs to be there. It needs to be heard. Okay? Make sure your "s" is being

heard. Okay.

Next, let's look at some other kinds of sentences. "My name's Maria." Now, think how important

this is. If you go for the IELTS exam, one of the first thing that you do... One of the

first things you do is you introduce yourself. Right? You have a sort of an introduction,

the examiner introduces himself or herself, and then asks your name. And let's say the

first thing you say is "My name's Maria." But instead of saying "My name's Maria", what

if you said "My name Maria", and I couldn't hear the "s"? Now, what does the examiner

immediately feel? Okay, this student's level is somewhere down here because of that missing

"s". Okay? So, let's correct that "s". It's so important. I'm not telling you for no reason.

I hear it all the time, this mistake. Okay? And the worst part is the students are...

When I stop my students and say, "You're not saying the's'", they said, "I did say the

's', Rebecca." I was like, "I know. I think you do know that because I see in your writing

that you're adding the's', but when you're speaking, I'm not hearing it. And if I'm not

hearing it, your examiner's not going to hear it, your interviewer's not going to hear it,

your audience is not going to hear it, so we don't want to go there." Let's correct

it now. Okay? So, stay with me. "My name's Maria.", "There's no time left." Okay? "What

time's the movie?" Okay? Now, in all of these... So, what's happening? "My name's Maria" means

my name is Maria. Right? There is no time left. What time is the movie? That's the contraction.

"John's gone home.", "John's gone home." Now, here, it's not "John is gone home", it's "John

has gone home" because sometimes that apostrophe "s" is "is" or it could be "has". Okay? "John's

gone home", and "Let's go." Again, "Let's go." Okay? Now, whether you said it along with

me or whether you want to go back after listening to this lesson and then, you know, go back,

pause the video, repeat it as many times as you need to to really make sure that your

"s" is coming out strong and clear. Okay? Now we're going to look at some other issues

that happen with that missing "s" with possessives, and plurals, and tenses. Okay?

So now let's look at how that little "s" affects possessives and plurals. Okay? So, repeat

after me. First, for proper nouns. All right? "John's car." All right? Really pay attention

to that little "s", that little sound of "s" that's going to make a difference between

your sounding as if you're speaking correct English or incorrect English. All right? Let's

make a sentence from it. "John's car is blue." Okay? Repeat after me. "John's car is blue."

Now, what you might want to do is record yourself. Okay? Later. Go back, stop the video, pause

at different points, and repeat and record yourself, and then listen to see if you can

hear... Really hear that "s". And if you can't hear it, then you need to practice some more.

Okay?

Let's take another one. "Mary's friends are very nice." Okay? "Mary's friends". Now, here

you have two "s"s. Okay? One is part of the possessive, and one is actually a plural,

but doesn't matter. In real life sentences, you're going to have all kinds of mixed up

combinations of "s"s that show up in interesting places. Okay? So, let's say it together. "Mary's

friends". "Mary's friends". Good. "Linda and Steve's home is beautiful." "Linda and Steve's

home is beautiful." Now, in that kind of situation, usually we'll put the "s" just on the last

person. Okay? We won't say "Linda's and Steve's home". No. We say "Linda and Steve's home

is beautiful." Okay? So, make sure we can hear your "s". Okay? Don't make it a disappearing

"s".

All right. Now, also when we're using it with common nouns. For example, "My brother's business

is doing very well." Let's say the first part together. "My brother's business". Again,

"My brother's business". If I don't hear the "s", then it'll sound like "My brother business".

Okay? We don't want that. "My brother's business". Good. Okay, next. "The manager's office is

down there." Okay? "The manager's office is down there." Okay? Or "The manager's office

is over there." "The manager's office". Got it? Repeat after me. "The manager's office".

Good. Say the "s", okay, till you can hear it clearly.

Also with pronouns, okay? For example, possessive pronouns. "Canada is famous for its natural

beauty." "Its natural beauty". Say it after me. "Its natural beauty". Okay? Good. I hope

you're becoming more aware, and as you become more aware, you will pay more attention and

you will end up making that small change. I'm basically focused with all my students

and clients just on making those small changes that make a big difference, and this is one

of those changes that will make a difference for you. Okay?

Now let's look at some plurals. Regular plurals and also when plurals happen in expressions.

Okay? This is a very common error that I'm going to explain to you that I hear all the

time. Okay, so let's look at some regular plurals. "Our professors are all excellent."

"Our professors", okay? "Our professors". Say the "s", okay? Next, "The stores are closed

now." "The stores are closed now." Okay? Good. "What did you think of my ideas?" "My ideas",

okay? Because if you don't say "my ideas", it'll just sound like one idea. "My idea".

Okay? "What did you think of my ideas?" Okay? All right, next, let's look at the expressions.

Now, here, this is a very common mistake. Now, actually, this is not only a mistake

in pronunciation, but this is very often a mistake in understanding and in grammar, so

I'm giving you a kind of a double fix here. Okay, we're going to fix the pronunciation

and we're going to fix the grammar mistake. "For some reason", which I have not figured

out, "a lot of students are leaving out the's' in phrases like this." Now, for example,

if you're doing the IELTS exam, very often one of the questions is "What's... Talk about

your favorite place or your favorite hobby or something like that." And you might need

to use this kind of expression. You might need to say "One of my favorite places". Now,

here, I don't think it's actually a grammar error. I think a lot of students are making...

Sorry, it's not a pronunciation error, it's actually that a lot of students are making

a grammar error and they are not putting an "s" here. Okay? So, make sure that doesn't

happen to you. Let's fix it right now. So, whenever you're talking about this kind of

expression, right? "One of my friends", "one of my classes", "one of my hobbies". Okay?

Whenever you have that kind of construction or that kind of expression, remember it's

going to be one of many. Right? So, that second part has to be plural. Okay? But for some

reason people are saying, like, "one of my hobby". No. "One of my hobbies", "one of my

favorite places". Okay? Make sure you're correcting that.

Also on the IELTS, very often you're asked to analyze something. What are the causes

of this? What are the solutions? Especially in the third part of your IELTS exam where

you're asked to discuss things a little bit more seriously and academically. So, make

sure you're adding that "s" and make sure that your examiner can hear it. Right? "One

of the causes", "one of the causes" or "one of the solutions is", okay? Now, remember,

if you're saying this, after that it is going to be singular. Okay? "One of the causes is",

not "are", okay? Because this is the real subject. "One of the solutions is", okay?

All right? If you just fix that, that's, like, such a big fix. Okay?

Let's look at one more situation where this kind of mistake can make a difference. Okay,

so now let's look at how that "s" shows up in tenses. So, we use the "s", as you know,

in present simple, present continuous, present perfect, a lot of the perfect tenses, so let's

look at a few examples. Okay? So, we should be saying "He likes me", right? In present

simple, not "He like me", and even if you know it but we can't hear it, again, we need

to hear it. Right? "He likes me." "She's working", not "she working", "she's working" in present

continuous or present progressive. Right?

Let's take an example from the present perfect. "It's been busy. It's been busy." Now, I know

it's not easy to add that little, you know, "s" sound, but I think you can see why it's

so important. Right? Just keep going back and practicing that. Right? "He likes", "it

keeps", okay? "It's been", "she's working", right? Just go back and say that. Say that,

record it, listen for it, and you will master it. You can do it, because once I work with

students I know they get it, they just didn't know that that was happening. All right? That's

why I'm here, to help you with that.

Okay. Next is sometimes people add the "s" but in the wrong place. It's not strictly

a pronunciation error, but I thought I would throw it in here so that you benefit from

that as well. Okay? In case it happens to you. So, for example, they might say by mistake,

"It's keep on beeping." No. It should be "It keeps on beeping." Okay? For example, I don't

know, the fridge door. I have a simple fridge, but the fridge beeps if I leave it open by

mistake, which is a wonderful thing because it happens sometimes. Right? So, it keeps

on beeping as long as it's open. Okay? All right. So make sure you add the "s" finally

in the correct place. That's more of a grammar mistake, but nevertheless. Okay?

And then there are a few other situations that have to do with the "s". Okay? For example,

sometimes students forget to add the "s" in a word that actually requires an "s". They

might say "alway" or they might say "always", but it doesn't sound like it. So, let's repeat

this word. Always. Always. Okay? Good. And sometimes an "s" is added when it's not needed.

For example, it's incorrect in proper English to actually say "anyways". Okay? That's kind

of slang. You might hear people saying it. It's not really correct. Don't use it in a

job interview, don't use it at work, don't use it with your clients, don't use it on

an exam. Okay? So, just say "anyway" with no "s". Okay? This time, don't say the "s".

And then there are some words where an "s" can make a difference to the meaning. They're

actually... These two are actually different words. Okay? In a lot of my lessons, this

is what we do. Like, we really get into some of these important points where you can make

a big difference to the overall quality of your English by correcting these small errors.

Okay?

So, let's look at these two words. "Sometime" and "sometimes". Do you know the difference

between these two words? If you were using it in a sentence, is there a difference? Yes,

there is a difference. So, let me tell you what it is so that you can choose the right

word and add the "s" or not. So, "sometime" is, like, you know, one day in the future.

You know? I hope... I hope we see each other again sometime. But this is not your best

friend who you see often. This is somebody you meet, maybe you met somebody on a flight,

and you hope that one day, you know, you'll bump into each other again, and you say, "I

hope we meet sometime." It means at some undecided and undetermined time in the future. Right?

Or, this word, "sometimes". I meet my friend John sometimes after work. Okay? It means

every so often. This is, like, regularly, and this is one day, sometime. Okay? All right.

So, that's "sometime" and "sometimes". So, depending on which word you want to say, add

the "s" or don't add the "s". All right? So, I hope that I've given you a lot of insight

into this little issue of the missing "s", and keep watching these kind of lessons. Subscribe

to my channel. You'll get lots of hacks, whether it's for grammar, or vocabulary, or pronunciation

that I think will shorten your path to English fluency, and I'd love to help you do that.

Okay? Thanks very much for watching. Bye for now.