Lengua Inglesa I

Inglés Instrumental III

Prof. Rubén Chacón Beltrán
Prof. Jim Lawley

Pronunciación

UNIT 2

Consonants /s/ vs /z/ and plural endings II.

The sound /z/ is usually written with the letters <z> or <s>.

<z> zoo, zipper

<zz> buzz
<ze> dozen, size, prize
<s> easy, busy, reason, cousin, visit, present
<se> please, these, those, because, exercise

Other spellings:

<ss> dessert, scissors, possess

Note that the <s>, <es>, and <’s> that is added to a noun or verb to
form the plural, possessive, or third person singular present tense in
English is pronounced in different ways depending on how the word
ends. <s> is pronounced /z/after voiced consonants and vowels. <s>,
<es>, and <’s> is pronounced as a separate syllable /Iz/ only in nouns
and verbs that end in /s, z, S, Z, tS, dZ/.

Activity 1: Make the following nouns plural and change the verbs
to the third person singular present tense. Then write
/Iz/, /s/, or /z/. Then read the words:
success experiment type page
word year mile building
window arrive realize country
service laugh minute destroy
crash time vegetable page
eye inch science arrange

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 Lengua Inglesa I

Activity 2: Write /Iz/, /s/, or /z/ below the <s> or <es> ending of
each word to show how it is pronounced. Check your
answers in pairs. Read the text.

Liz hates doing the laundry. She realizes that four weeks
have passed since her last trip to the laundromat. There are piles
of clothes in the closets, the sheets and towels are dirty, she’s
been wearing the same pair of blue jeans for nine days, and she
doesn’t have any clean socks or blouses left. She thinks about it
while she watches one of her favourite TV shows. She wishes she
didn’t have to do such chores. Then she opens a book, turns the
pages, and tries to study. She stands up, she grabs some coat
hangers, two boxes of detergent, and her keys, and closes the
door behind her. She arrives at the laundromat, carries in all her
belongings, and searches for some empty machines. But they’re
all either in use of out of order. She has to wait.