The final ‘s’ sounds in words can be confusing as there are three different ways that we can pronounce ‘s’ endings. Listen to the following three words and listen for the difference:

Cooks Earns Damages

There are slight differences here:
Cooks makes the /s/ sound. Cooks / cooks. Other examples are:

Checks
Graduates
Hates

Earns makes the /z/ sound. Earns / earns. Other examples are:

Boys
Girls
Hours

Messages makes the /iz/ sound. Messages / Messages. Other examples are:

Closes
Damages
Faces

Listen to the following examples of words ending with ‘s’ and Identify the correct sound. We will tell you if you are right or wrong:

wants
things
sandwiches
products
loves
places
paints
lives
phrases

Flickr CC: William Chew