Alveolar

/s/

We can find a similar sound in Spanish and although most students can pronounce it they tend to say [espuːn] instead of [spuːn]

Spelling:

The sound /s/ is usually written with the letter 's'

• 's': class, lesson, student,...
• 's': bicycle, exersize,...
• 'se': house, horse,..
• 'ce': policeman, face
• 'x' (pronounced /ks/): six, box, exercise.

/z/

There is no similar independent sound in Spanish, although when 's' precedes a voiced consonant, we can see it is very similar although with some differences. Remember to  use your voice to pronounce this sound. We may find this sound in English in:

• initial: zip, zoo, zebra
• medial: busy, crazy
• final: wise, days, loose, lose.

Note: both /z/ and /s/ are very important in English because they can represent the plural morphemes, the Saxon genitive and the third person singular present tense.