{"id":551,"date":"2014-11-05T14:49:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T19:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rachel-smith-live.prev21.rmkr.net\/?p=551"},"modified":"2025-10-28T17:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:31:37","slug":"s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/s\/","title":{"rendered":"The S in IS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Question:<\/p>\n

The word “is” has been bothering me for a\u00a0while and I can’t seem to find a related video. Sometimes is sounds like \/IZ\/ to me and sometimes it sounds like \/IS\/, i.e. ending in the \/z\/ sound and ending in the \/s\/ sound.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I wonder if the sound of “is” changes depending on the surrounding words or apostrophes such as \u00a0he’s, it’s, etc, or if I was just imagining it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Answer:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
IS is always officially a [z] — a voiced sound. \u00a0Voiced sounds are considered ‘weak’ next to their unvoiced counterparts, so depending on the context you might not hear it strongly. \u00a0This also applies to contractions where it is following a voiced sound: \u00a0he’s, she’s.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But when it’s following an unvoiced sound in a contraction: \u00a0it’s, what’s, that’s — then it switches to unvoiced, [s].<\/div>\n
Also, if it is followed by a word that begins with S, it will usually be [s], connecting right into the next word. \u00a0Example: \u00a0“When is Sam leaving?” –> iss_ssam.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Question: The word “is” has been bothering me for a\u00a0while and I can’t seem to find a related video. Sometimes is sounds like \/IZ\/ to me and sometimes it sounds like \/IS\/, i.e. ending in the \/z\/ sound and ending in the \/s\/ sound. I wonder if the sound of “is” changes depending on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-improve-your-accent","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe S in IS - Rachel's English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The S in IS - Rachel's English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Question: The word “is” has been bothering me for a\u00a0while and I can’t seem to find a related video. 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