How to pronounce the /s/ before consonants

Special, spend, stay, spree, study, square and spring are all words beginning with /s/ plus a consonant. As many of my students find this combination difficult to pronounce, they make the mistake of putting an extra /e/ before the /s/. So they say /e/spend, /e/stay, /e/study, /e/spring. Here’s how to fix this problem with a simple exercise.

How to pronounce the /s/ before consonants

Section one: spotting the problem

If you have a recording device, your mobile phone for example, then use it to record your speech while doing the exercises to check how you actually sound.

Test yourself to read out these simple phrases as naturally as possible. Record yourself if you can.

• I am Spanish.
• I am from Spain.
• I like skiing.
• Do you like Bruce Springsteen?
• Here is what I often hear from students - compare it with how you read them... 
• I am Espanish.
• I am from Espain.
• I like eskiing.
• Do you like Bruce Espringsteen?

This is what I don’t want you to sound like!

Section two: correcting the problem

/s/, /s/... Scary, spooky. What makes a similar sound? Well, a snake is a good guess. Or a punctured camping mattress!

Now it’s your turn. Say this with me: /s/. This is no big deal, I know. A bit more patience and you’ll see my point.

Say the /s/ again, stretch it out for a few seconds, and then close your lips. Like this: /sssssssp/. 

That’s right! We are able to say /s/ and /p/ together without the supporting /e/ before them. Let’s see how well we do with some other consonant pairs. Take /k /, for instance: /sssssssk/. Not bad at all. And this one: /ssssssst/. How about /sssssssm/? This one may feel a little strange because it’s not inside a word. We’ll take a closer look at that in a minute. 

Now listen to these words:

Piece of cake! Now comes the tricky part: try saying these words once again but start with the snake hiss before them. You'll get /sssssspi:k/, /sssssspɪt/, /ssssssku:l/, and the rest are pronounced in a similar way.

You must have realised that with this /s/ at the beginning you are actually saying the words speak, spit, school, scan, snail and spine. They still sound a bit strange with this long /sssssss/ before them but after a little trimming they’ll sound nice and polished, I promise!

Section three: practice

Word pairs come next. Listen and repeat them after the beep as usual. You’ll notice that the left and right column word pairs are pronounced the same, except for the initial /s/.

Take care that you don’t insert an /e/ before the /s/ in the words on the right. So once again it’s not /e'spi:k/ and /e'sku:l/, but /spi:k/ and /sku:l/.

Take your time. You can work your way there by making a really long /s/ first like /sssssssssssssspi:k/, and then by gradually reducing it to /sssssssssspi:k/ and /sssspi:k/, until you can finally pronounce the word with a short /s/ at the beginning: /spi:k/.

Now let’s recycle some of the words from the beginning of this unit in phrases. Listen out for how the words in italics are pronounced.

• I'm Spanish.
• I am from Spain.
• Bruce Springsteen is an American singer.
• Spiderman is a cartoon character.
• I like skiing. 
• My scanner is brand new.
• She specializes in chemistry.
• Long skirts are in fashion again.
• My hairspray is really sticky.
• Is this spice from India?

It's a good idea to keep practising until you feel comfortable saying these phrases.

Section four: how to memorize 

Memorize some common word collocations. Then you have them ready for any occasion, correctly pronounced. 

Here are some examples to start with:

• a document scanner
• secondary school
• spring water
• a soup spoon
• a flat stomach
• a mini skirt
• a spider's web
• ski boots

A good monolingual English dictionary as well as authentic English texts can provide you with more examples! Well done!