The Z-Sound
Today, we’re going to discuss the voiced alveolar fricative - Z-sound /z/.
THE SOUND
The Z-sound /z/ is produced when air is forced through a narrow turbulent passage made between the tongue and the ridge behind your upper teeth - the alveolar ridge. As you push air out of your mouth, squeeze the air between the tip of your tongue and the top of your mouth. You should feel some resistance.
For the Z-sound /z/, the sound is voiced (the vocal cords vibrate while producing it), and the the voiced counterpart sound is the Z-sound /z/.
Verbal cues
Exaggerate your /z/ sound at first. Because it is a fricative sound, the /z/ is a continuous consonant and can be held for several seconds. Try holding the Z-sound for 5 seconds.
Remember that the tongue tip contact should be light against the alveolar ridge. Harsh pressure is not needed and not helpful.
Visual Cues
Remember to keep the tongue tip position behind the teeth. If you look at a mirror, the tongue should be kept hidden behind the teeth and should not be visible in your reflection.
Tactile Cues
If you need help finding the alveolar ridge for your tongue to contact during this sound, run your tongue along your upper teeth. Then, slowly retract your tongue backward into your mouth you find the border of your tooth teeth and the hard roof of you mouth. That is the alveolar ridge.
Because this sound is voiced, you should feel a buzzing vibration if you put your hand on your neck as your vocal cords vibrate.
THE SOUND IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS.
Here's the sound in different positions of a word.
BEGINNING OF THE WORD - zoo, zebra, zipper, zombie
MIDDLE OF THE WORD - puzzle, zigzag, lizard, advertisement
END OF THE WORD - buzz, rise, ooze, maze
*NOTE - Notice how the Z-sound can be represented by a S-letter or Z-letter.
**SIDE NOTE - There are two potential pronunciations of the word ‘advertisement’, depending on if your region follows a North American or European English pronunciation. The General American accent places the primary stress is on AD-ver-tise-ment. The UK English pronunciation has a different primary stress and pronounces it ad-VER-tise-ment. Canadian English follows the American pronunciation.
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THE SOUND BUT AREN'T
pizza - In this situation, the Z-letter is not a Z-sound. Instead, it is a TS-sound combination. It sounds more PETE-sa than pizza.
chez, laissez-faire, rendezvous - These words are borrowed from French. Therefore, as borrowed words, their use in English follows French rules and French pronunciation. As a result, they are silent.
SITUATIONS THAT ARE BUT DON’T SEEM LIKE THE SOUND
risen, wise, praise - In these situations, the S-letter is pronounced like a Z sound.
Advice vs. Advise - Here is a good pairing to demonstrate the S-sound versus Z-sound difference. Advice is pronounced with the S-sound. Advise is pronounced with the Z-sound. The rest of the word is pronounced exactly the same.
ADVICE - /ədˈvīs/
ADVISE - /ədˈvīz/
WHY IT MAY BE HARD
As you could see above, sometimes the Z-Sound can come in different forms. It can be a Z-letter or sometimes a S-letter. The Z-letter can also not mean a Z-sound like in the word pizza.
If you do not pay attention to the actual pronunciation of the word, you may accidentally pronounce the S-sound because you see the S-letter or the Z-sound because you see the Z-letter.
Native English speakers don’t. They know the pronunciation because they learned the sound before they learned the letter. That is why many young children can pronounce the word correctly even before they can spell.
WHAT TO DO
So let's say you do have trouble with your S-sound. What can you do about it.
Well here are the features of the S-sound.
Place of articulation - Between your tongue tip and the alveolar ridge (the ridge behind your top teeth). Your tongue should lightly contact the alveolar ridge.
Manner of articulation - Frication. Airflow is turbulent but continuous - like a whistle. It is turbulent because airflow is passing through a narrow passageway. The sound keeps coming out as long as you have air from the lungs to continue the airflow.
Voiced or unvoiced - voiceless (this means the vocal cords do not vibrate while producing the S-sound).
TIPS & EXTRA CONSIDERATIONS
Plural S
sleeps, books, hats, cliffs, graphs, myths - S-sound
crabs words, bags, deals, dreams, fans, sings, wears, gloves, plays - Z-sound
races, buses, boxes, prizes, kisses, watches, dishes, changes - IZ-sound
Don’t forget the pronunciation rule that comes with plural S pronunciation. When voiced consonants come BEFORE the plural S-letter, or a ES-letter combination, a Z-sound is pronounced.
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
