English Sounds - S [s] and Z [z] Consonants - How to make the S and Z Consonants

In this American English pronunciation video,

we're going to learn how to make the S and Z consonant sounds.

These two sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position.

S is unvoiced, meaning only air passes through the mouth.

And Z is voiced, meaning, you make a sound with the vocal cords, Zz.

To make the sounds, the lips part and the corners pull back a little

while the teeth themselves likely touch.

Sss--, Zzz--

There are two ways to make these sounds.

One, with the tip of the tongue down, lightly touching the back of the bottom front teeth.

Or by pointing the tip of the tongue up.

You may find that the position of the tongue tip

depends on the sounds around the S and Z.

Let's look at these sounds up close and in slow motion.

The teeth lightly touch, tongue tip is down

and you can see a lot of tongue through the teeth.

Sit. Again, teeth lightly touch, the tongue tip is pointed down.

Miss. The tongue tip stays down as the teeth come together.

Fizz. This time, you'll see the tongue tip point up before the teeth close, and up.

The S and Z sounds.

Sip

Miss

Fizz

Example words. Repeat with me:

Note, the letter S can make the Z sound.

Some. Ss-- Some.

Must. Ss-- Must.

Less. Ss-- Less.

Zip. Zz-- Zip.

Cousin. Zz-- Cousin.

Easy. Zz-- Easy.

This video is one of 36 in a new series, The Sounds of American English.

Videos in this set will be released here on YouTube twice a month, first and third Thursdays, in 2016 and 2017.

But the whole set can be all yours right now.

The real value of these videos is watching them as a set, as a whole,

to give your mind the time to take it all in and get the bigger picture.

Most of the materials you'll find elsewhere just teach the sounds on their own in isolation.

It's a mistake to learn them this way.

We learn the sounds to speak words and sentences, not just sounds.

Move closer to fluency in spoken English. Buy the video set today!

Visit rachelsenglish.com/sounds

Available as a DVD or digital download.