Plural 's' and a bit of STRESS!
Plural ‘s’ – we need to hear it! Forgetting to pronounce the plural ‘s’ has to be one of the most frequent problems for French speakers and one of the most difficult to correct.
One apple
Two apples
Lots of apples
It looks simple, doesn’t it… Why then, do people have so much trouble remembering to add the sound? BECAUSE in French, the ‘s’ at the end of nouns isn’t pronounced and it gets forgotten. This only occurs in a conversation but for an English speaker it’s an indication of a person’s language abilities.
It’s a simple mistake that is very difficult to correct.
There is more than one 's'
Have you ever thought about how many sounds there are for the plural ‘s’ in English? There are 3 sounds that we make. Click on the letters to hear the sounds.
cups
shops
documents
bottles
apples
shelves
glasses
houses
churches
Now it's your turn
Below, I’ve added a list of 100 common business nouns. How would you pronounce them? What ‘s’ sound would you use?
Here are the rules:
- Say the word in its singular form,
- Say the word again in its plural form. – Add the /s/ , /z/ , /ɪz/ to the end of the word. Can you guess the correct sound?
- Click on the word to hear the pronunciation. Were you correct?
An additional challenge
Can you repeat the rhythm?
As an addiitional exercise can you say the word with the correct ‘word stress’ (accentuation)? For example: ‘advantages’ has 4 syllables : ad – van – ta – ges. My voice stresses the ‘van‘.
I have shown the first 3 words with the correct ‘word stress’. Listen carefully and try and repeat the same rhythm. Can you say word with the correct stress pattern?
account
achievement
advantage
advert
agenda
agreement
alternative
answer
apology
appointment
approval
authorisation
bill
brand
budget
change
commission
comparison
competition
consumer
competitor
confirmation
cost
creditor
currency
customer
deadline
debtor
debts
decision
decrease
delivery
department
description
difference
disadvantage
employee
enquiry
environment
estimate
experience
explanation
facility
factory
guarantee
goal
good
improvement
increase
industry
instruction
interest
inventory
invoice
limit
loss
margin
market
meeting
message
mistake
objective
offer
opinion
option
order
payment
penalty
permission
possibility
price
proceedure
product
profit
purchase
quantity
reduction
refund
reminder
report
responsibility
result
retailer
rise
risk
salary
sale
share
success
signature
stock
subsidiary
supply
suggestion
target
trainee
wage
worker
I hope you enjoyed this exercise. Word stress is a difficult area for French speakers and can be a common cause of confusion during a conversation.
Use the words in a sentence
Can you use any of these words in a sentence? Think about your job or your compnay. Which nouns could you use to talk about them?
- Examples
- Next week I have 3 appointments with 3 new clients.
- Our competitors have announced significant increases in their turnover.
- All the subidiaries within the group have performed very well this year. We are delighted with the results.
- Our sales figures have decreased again and we're concerned that we won't reach or targets this month.
If you have a problem with a specific sound, or the pronunciation of a certain word, please add a comment and tell me, or contact me direct.
Cet article a 2 commentaires
Excellent!
Hello Gaëlle, I’m delighted you approve… If you find any technical errors please let me know… hahaha 🙂