LISTEN

/z/…/z/…/z/…/z/

z​oo…these…pens…lazy

WHAT IS IT?

Pronunciation:
The sound /z/ is a voiced, alveolar fricative. 

• Touch your alveolar ridge (the hard space behind your upper teeth) with the tip of your tongue.
• Breathe out and let air escape your mouth. This should create a buzzing sound.
• Your vocal cords should vibrate.

​The sound /z/ can be in these clusters:

Spelling:​​

• “z” – zip, zoo
• “zz” – sizzle, buzzer
• “ze” – maze, realize
• “s” – bags, losing
• “se” – these, rise
• “es” – loves, clothes

​Grammar Tip: 
The “-s” ending is used to mark plural nouns, possessive nouns, and present tense 3rd person singular verbs. The “-s” ending is pronounced /z/ after a vowel or voiced consonant.

• Plural nouns: bags, days
• Possessive nouns: John’s book, Chicago’s river
• 3rd person singular verbs: moves, tries

COMPARE

Compare /z/ with /s/:

/z/…/s/…/z/…/s/…/z/…/s/

These sounds are both alveolar, fricative consonants. However, /z/ is a voiced consonant and /s/ is a voiceless consonant. If you are pronouncing /z/, your vocal cords should vibrate. At the end of a word, the vowel before /z/ will be longer than the vowel before /s/.

​You can hear the difference between /z/ and /s/ in these words.

1. A. zeal, B. seal
2. A. lies, B. lice
3. A. falls, B. false
4. A. scares, B. scarce
5. A. raising, B. racing
​6. A. disease, B. decease

Practice recognizing words with /z/ and /s/ by taking the quiz here (external site).

​Now, compare /z/ with /dʒ/:

/z/…/dʒ/…/z/…/dʒ/…/z/…/dʒ/

These are both voiced alveolar consonants. However, /z/ is a fricative and /dʒ/ is an ​affricate. If you are pronouncing /dʒ/, the air in your mouth should stop before it is released (creating a “harder” sound).

You can hear the difference between /z/ and /dʒ/ in these words.

1. A. zest, B. jest
2. A. buzz, B. budge
3. A. raise, B. rage
4. A. ways, B. wage
5. A. zoos, B. Jews​​​
6. A. chains, B. change

Practice recognizing words with /z/ and /dʒ/ by taking the quiz here (external site).

PRACTICE

Listen and repeat these words:

Now, practice /z/ in sentences. Say the words first, then the sentences.

1. size – shoes – does 
What size of shoes does he wear?
2. kids – visit – zoo 
The kids want to visit the zoo.
3. composer – pieces – music
That composer wrote many famous pieces of music.
4. friend’s – pleasant – surprise 
My friend’s arrival was a pleasant surprise.
5. ​checkers – always – lose
If I play checkers with my sister, I always lose.
6. viruses – cause – diseases 
Viruses can cause different diseases.

To practice with different varieties of English, choose another native English speaker by clicking one of the links below:

Male – US Midwest (St. Louis)

Male – US Midwest (Iowa)

Male – US Midwest

Female – US Northeast

Female – US Southeast

Prepare:
When you choose to listen to music, you can choose from many types:. Think about how you choose the music you listen to.

• Classical music
• Jazz music
• Blues music
• Country music
• Rock music
• Hip-hop music
• Rap music

Record:
Imagine you are giving advice on how to choose music to enjoy. In your recording, describe 3 different types of music and how they influence a person’s mood.

©2024, Christine Wingate

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.