Pronunciation LabEnglish pronunciation
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Guided practice · General American English

English Sound Laboratory

Initial /s/ versus /z/ voicing control

Build initial /s/ versus /z/ voicing control using reviewed /s/ anchors and a new sentence-level /z/ transfer target.

PracticeGuided practiceRecord and listen at every stage
Practise with trustworthy examples. Reviewed audio is used where it is available. On other items, you can still record, listen back and retry. Pronunciation feedback appears only where this lab has a reviewed feedback check.

See · compare · feel the voicing contrast

Keep the same ridge position; switch the voice on for /z/

Both targets are alveolar fricatives with continuous oral airflow. The key modeled contrast is voicing: /s/ is voiceless and /z/ is voiced. Keep the tongue position stable while you change only the laryngeal setting.

Voiceless/s/
Schematic target articulation. It is not a measurement of the learner's mouth.
Place
alveolar
Manner
fricative
Tongue tip
near alveolar ridge
Airflow
grooved oral
Voice
voiceless
Voiced/z/
Schematic target articulation. It is not a measurement of the learner's mouth.
Place
alveolar
Manner
fricative
Tongue tip
near alveolar ridge
Airflow
grooved oral
Voice
voiced
What you are hearing: these short clips come from the reviewed sentence at the end of this lab. Use them as context examples for the sound.