Pronuncia Correttamente Le Parole Inglesi Che Iniziano Per S | Miriam Romeo English Coach

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Today I want to teach you a very important phonetic rule that's going to help you with the pronunciation of all English words that begin with S. So keep watching. Welcome to my channel.

[00:00:14]Then I would love to be your English coach. Make your English sound smoother and more convincing with the five tips I share my free pronunciation class. Click on the link in the description box below to watch it. I have decided to make this video because there's a very very common mistake that Italians make when it comes to pronouncing English words that begin with the letter S. And as I've said before, there are two different sounds that the S has in English, the voiced Z sound and the voiceless S sound. And we also have those two different sounds in Italian, but in Italian, in spoken Italian, it's not that big of a deal.

[00:00:52]where in English this distinction is crucial and I will link that video up here for you to check out. For today I want to focus on the pronunciation of word initial S on the pronunciation of all English words that begin with the letter S. And the rule is actually very very simple. The word initial S is always voiceless. And that's why this is a very common mistake for Italians because as much as we don't really distinguish in this specific instance, it's kind of the opposite. So in Italian, the initial S can have a voiceless or a voiced sound depending on the following consonant. If the initial S is followed by a voiced consonant like an N or an M or a G or a D or a V or a B, automatically that initial S becomes voiced, becomes Z in Italian. But in English that's not the case. In English, it doesn't matter if after the S you have a voiceless consonant or a voiced consonant or a vowel, it's always voiceless. So it's always s. So you say soft, silk, sad.

[00:02:07]And in this case, the s is followed by a vowel. And of course, you automatically correctly pronounce the voiceless s when the s is followed by a voiceless consonant in words like stop, splash, scary.

[00:02:26]But when it comes to words like these, how do you pronounce them?

[00:02:33]In these words, the initial S is followed by a voiced consonant. So, a sound that involves the vibration of your vocal cords. As an Italian speaker, it might be automatic for you to pronounce these words with an initial Z sound, but it's wrong. And again, it's a very, very common mistake. It's a legitimate mistake for an Italian speaker. So the first one is sweet.

[00:03:00]Sweet.

[00:03:02]The common mistake is to say sweet. How do you usually pronounce it?

[00:03:08]The correct pronunciation is sweet.

[00:03:12]Sweet.

[00:03:15]So to help you, I'm going to tell you that this word is pronounced exactly the same as this word sweet. This is a French word of course and we also pronounce this correctly in Italian. The suite of a hotel luite sweet. This is the same. What tricks you is always the spelling because you see a W and technically the W is a consonant but has a vowel sound. So sweet. They are identical. Sweet. To help you, you can start by saying sue. Sue. Of course, you can say sue with a voiceless s sound at the beginning. Just add to that sue. So, keep that sound, that initial s sound of s sweet.

[00:04:08]Sweet. And to check that you're pronouncing the correct sound and not the voiced Z sound, place your hand here on your neck without applying any pressure. And just to check, just to show you what I mean when I say voiced and voiceless, say Z.

[00:04:29]Do you feel the vibration in your neck?

[00:04:32]That's the voiced sound Z. So it's the voiced sound of the letter S, which is also a sound that we have with the letter Z. Z. Do you feel it? And that is a voiced sound. So with voice, because your vocal cords are vibrating. But now if you do S, do you feel anything? Now there's no vibration anymore. There's just air coming out through your mouth. And this is the voiceless sound of the S. So without voice, without vibration of the vocal cords, S. Do you feel it? And do you hear it now? So let's go back to this word sweet. You can check again with your neck, with your vocal cord.

[00:05:20]Sweet.

[00:05:22]Sweet. You should start feeling a vibration with the vowel sounds. Sweet.

[00:05:28]But at the beginning, there's nothing.

[00:05:30]And it's the same for sweater, switch, swap, Swiss, swing.

[00:05:46]Now, let's pronounce a couple of words that start with S L.

[00:05:51]Sleep.

[00:05:53]Again, you can check. Sleep. You should start feeling the vibration with the L.

[00:05:59]Sleep, but nothing before sleep.

[00:06:04]Slap.

[00:06:06]Slow.

[00:06:09]Slip.

[00:06:11]Now some words starting with sm.

[00:06:15]Smart.

[00:06:18]Smell.

[00:06:22]Small.

[00:06:25]Now sn.

[00:06:27]Sneak.

[00:06:30]Snap.

[00:06:33]Snail.

[00:06:36]Snail.

[00:06:38]This is one of those few times where I can tell you that the rule always applies. So, a word initial S in English words is always voiceless. Of course, this doesn't apply if you're pronouncing German words or words coming from another language. And there are some English words where you have an initial S that has a different sound like sugar, sure. But you know about these words and it's still a voiceless sound anyway.

[00:07:09]Shh. Shh. So a word initial S has always a voiceless sound in English. This is the rule. And it's refreshing for once to have a rule that always applies because when it comes to English pronunciation, English phonetics, that's not something you will hear a lot. So did you know about this? And did you know that you could use your body as an instrument to check and correct certain sounds? Did you know about this difference between voiceless and voiced?

[00:07:41]Let me know in the comments below because I'm very, very interested. Now, don't forget to click on the link in the description box below to watch your free pronunciation class. And if you want to work with me and you would like to have me as your personal English coach, you can contact me at this email address right here. Thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.