About pronouncing the 's' in plural nouns and verbs

[Teeture]

Hello everyone.

A general rule of English pronunciation states that the 's' in plural nouns is to be pronounced as /z/ if it is preceded by a 'voiced consonant' such as /n/ or /g/, and as /s/ if it is preceded by a 'voiceless consonant' such as /t/ or /p/.


Therefore, "pens" is pronounced as /penz/ and "cats" is pronounced as /cats/.


Now my question is, do native speakers of English always follow this rule? Secondly, and this is what I really need to understand, does this rule apply also to the 's' in the verbs of 'third person singular subjects'?


–Prasad (Bangalore, India)

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum, Teeture.

Why would you think that we wouldn't always follow this rule? Are you just looking for random exceptions to the rule?

Yes, it applies to the third person singular verb too:

He fits (fitz)
He sings (singz)
He hops (hops)
He takes (takes)

 

[Odessa Dawn]

Thank you for your helpful reply as always. Will you make it clear, please? I haven’t seen that t sound is voiced thus far. Is there any exception? I apologize for taking your time out but as you know that non-native speakers can't master English the way it should be. As a result, we have to consult you.


Thank you,
​

 

[5jj]

Thank you for your helpful reply as always. Will you make it clear, please? I haven’t seen that t sound is voiced thus far. Is there any exception? I apologize for taking your time out but as you know that non-native speakers can't master English the way it should be.

/t/, almost by definition, is not voiced. t and tt may be voiced in some AmE ( and a few BrE) dialects, but not in word-final position or before /s/.