Think the words “Ice” and “Eyes” are pronounced the same? You might have an issue with voiced and voiceless consonants.
Almost every single English as a Second Language (ESL) client I work with on adopting an American accent, regardless of where they’re from, shares something in common. Though the beginning of a word may sound great, final consonant sounds sometimes slip, resulting in an entirely different-sounding word. “Eyes” comes out as “ice.” “Leave” sounds like “leaf.” “Twelve” drifts toward “twelfth,” and “ridge” turns into “rich.”
This is due to a small, very learnable feature of American English called voicing, and English spelling does a terrible job of telling you where it goes.
If this is something you’re struggling with, there’s good news: you almost certainly already know how to make every one of these sounds. The job is putting them in the right place.
What “Voicing” Actually Means
English consonants often come in pairs. The two sounds in each pair are produced in exactly the same manner, with the same tongue and lip position. The only difference is whether your vocal cords activate, or “buzz.” These voiced and voiceless consonant pairs are called cognate pairs in phonetics.
Cognate Pairs of English:
• S and Z
• F and V
• T and D
• P and B
• CH and J
• K and G
• SH and ZH (as in “shoot” and “pleasure”)
• TH and TH (as in “thin” and “this”)
Try feeling the difference. Put two fingers lightly on the front of your throat and hold a long “ffff.” Then, without moving your lips or teeth at all, switch to “vvvv.” You should feel a buzz in your throat, the result of your vocal cords quickly vibrating: this is voicing. Do the same thing with “ssss” and “zzzz.” You should again feel no different in placement within the mouth, only a difference in voicing.
Every vowel is voiced, but consonants can go either way. In American English, voicing tends to continue after the vowel through the end of the word. Many languages relax or switch off the voicing at the end of a word, so speakers carry that habit into English without ever noticing. The result doesn’t usually cause a dramatic misunderstanding, but it does make one’s speech identifiably ESL.
The Tricky Final S
The most frequent place in which this voicing rule is missed tends to be on a plural or possessive S at the end of a word. Despite always being spelled with an S, the sound often becomes a Z. The good news is there’s a reliable set of rules one can follow to figure out what should happen.
When you add an S to a word (for a plural, a possessive, or a verb like “she runs”), don’t look at the S itself; instead, look at the sound right before it.
• If the sound before it is voiceless, producing no buzz of the vocal cords (like the consonants T, K, P or F), the S stays a voiceless S: cats, books, cups, laughs.
• If the sound before it is voiced, producing a buzz on the vocal cords (any vowel, or consonants like N, M, L, D, G, B, V), the S becomes a Z: dogs, means, calls, plays, eyes.
I like to test this with names. My name ends in a T, which is voiceless, so “Scott’s book” keeps a true S. A name that ends in a vowel, like “Maria,” takes a Z: “Maria’s book” is really “Maria-z book.”
Then there are the sneaky little words that are spelled with an S but almost always said with a Z: is, was, has, as, his, hers, yours, ours. These show up in nearly every sentence you say, so fixing them pays off fast. As I tell my clients, we use the Z sound far more often than we spell it.
The Three Types of -ED Endings
Past-tense endings follow similar logic, with one extra twist. The spelling is always “-ed,” but there are three ways to pronounce it:
• T when it follows a voiceless sound: walked, laughed, kissed, watched, washed, fixed
• D when it follows a voiced sound: played, cleaned, called, arrived, used, allowed
• Add an extra syllable if the base word ends with a T or D: wanted, needed, started, decided, waited
Of the three, the one I advise being most cautious about is when to add an extra syllable. Saying “watch-ed” or “call-ed” with two syllables is the mistake most likely to cause a native English speaker to mishear you.
Watch Out for “Of”
If you take away one word from this post, make it “of.” It’s spelled with an F, but in American English it ends in a V sound. It’s also one of the most common words in the language, so if it comes out as “off,” you’re repeating that small slip dozens of times an hour. It also helps to reduce the vowel, resulting in “uhv.”
A Five-Minute Daily Drill
There’s a simple daily routine you can use to work on this issue. It only takes about five minutes, and you can do it anywhere.
Step 1: Feel the buzz. Fingers on your throat. Alternate “ffff / vvvv,” “ssss / zzzz,” and “chhh / jjj” five times each. Make sure your mouth doesn’t move. Only the buzz changes. Begin slowly, then see how fast you can alternate this change on each pair.
Step 2: Minimal pairs. Read each pair out loud, keeping your fingers on your throat. The second word in each pair should buzz all the way to the end.
• bus / buzz
• ice / eyes
• price / prize
• once / ones
• leaf / leave
• rich / ridge
Step 3: Overdo it. If producing a voiced ending on a word doesn’t feel natural at first, don’t worry! For now, overdo the voicing. Hold the Z in “eyes” a little too long. If a final J or V keeps cutting off, you can add a tiny phantom vowel after it, so “ridge” becomes almost “ridge-uh.” That little extra keeps the vocal cords on through the end of the word. It will feel exaggerated at first, and that’s fine. Think of it as overworking the action so you can build the muscle memory. It’s much easier to dial back a sound you can make on purpose than to find one you’ve never felt, so you can work on making the articulation more subtle over time.
Step 4: Put it in sentences. Read these slowly, then at normal speed (all underlined final sounds should be voiced):
• She leaves at twelve, and he arrives at five.
• His eyes were on the prize, not the price.
• The judge was at the edge of the bridge in a large orange coat.
• We played, laughed, and needed a nap.
Step 5: Try the other direction. Say a word wrong on purpose, then fix it. Say “leaf” with a clear F, then say “leave” and just think “V.” Hearing both versions back to back trains your ear as much as your mouth.
As you work on this issue, be sure to collect words where you know you struggle to voice the final sound so that you can practice them intentionally. Spend a little bit of time working on it consciously each day, and see how it seeps into your unconscious speech over time.
As you get better with the sound in time, work on reducing the amount of force necessary to produce the voiced sound. It’s counterintuitive, but a voiced sound needs less force to be heard, because the buzz carries it, while a voiceless sound needs a bit more airflow to come through.
What Progress Looks Like
In my experience, voicing improves in a predictable order. First, you can do it when someone reminds you. After a while, you start catching it right after you say it. Eventually, you can catch it while actively thinking before it happens. Finally, the change becomes automatic.
My clients often say that this new voiced version feels silly or awkward at first, and I always respond the same way: “Good!” It should feel different to you; if it didn’t, that would mean you’re already doing it. Embrace the awkwardness at first; it will feel more natural in time.
Want Some Help With Your Voiced Endings?
Voicing is one of those features that can be simple to understand on paper, yet surprisingly tricky to actually apply at full speed, especially when unreliable English spelling keeps pulling you the wrong way. Working with a coach like me can help you hear exactly which endings slip and build targeted practice drills and exercises to work on it.
Want help with sounds like these? Explore Accent Modification Coaching.
