The letter "Ss" has 2 sounds - "sss" and "zzz".
These words have the Ss "sss" sound:
- some, kiss, bus
- sat, square, mosquito
- ice, small, baseball
These words have the "zzz" sound:
- rose, days, because
- his, is, was, fingers
Common words that begin with "es". Note: The letter "Ss" does not include the sound of an "e" (short e) before the "sss" in pronouncing words. We say "stop", not "estop". There aren't very many common words that start with "es", some of these are:
- especially, escalator, essay
- esteem, essential, escape, establish
- eschew, estate, espouse, estimate
The letter "Cc" can sound like the letter "Ss":
- city, police, faucet
- bicycle, medicine, recipe, race
- pencil, dance, face, nice
Practice
Practice reading the following sentences out loud, concentrate on pronunciation of the "Ss" sounds. The red letters are pronounced with the regular "Ss" sound. The green letters are pronounced with the "Zz" sound. The blue letters are spelled with the "Cc" but pronounced with the "Ss" sound.
- Would you open the refrigerator and take a sniff? Something smells rotten.
- Notice how he writes? He grips the pen with four fingers.
- I need the scissors, a couple ribbons and the colored pens, so I can
wrap these things for presents.
- She cleans her windows every Saturday and some Wednesdays.
- The city police do not fix faucets.
- I have a very nice bicycle.
- My medicine makes me want to dance.