/z/as in zoo
You likely produce English /z/ as a plain, voiceless /s/, since Mandarin has the tongue shape for /s/ but no voiced counterpart anywhere in its sound system, making it easy to default to the familiar unvoiced hiss…
What you probably do
You likely produce English /z/ as a plain, voiceless /s/, since Mandarin has the tongue shape for /s/ but no voiced counterpart anywhere in its sound system, making it easy to default to the familiar unvoiced hiss, especially at the ends of words.
How natives do it
Native speakers shape the tongue exactly as for /s/ — a narrow channel near the gum ridge — but keep the vocal folds vibrating the whole time, adding a steady buzz to the hiss rather than leaving it silent, even when the sound appears at the very end of a word.
Why it matters
Because /z/ marks plurals, possessives, and verb endings in English ('dogs', 'runs', 'Tom's'), devoicing it to /s/ can blur grammatical meaning as well as individual words like 'rise' vs 'rice'. Adding voicing consistently, especially word-finally, will make your grammar sound clearer too.
Hear the difference
Words this touches
Mandarin Chinese speakers often substitute /s/.
How the mouth differs
Mandarin has /s/ but no voiced counterpart /z/ anywhere in its consonant system. Learners shape the tongue correctly (the same narrow alveolar groove as /s/) but leave out the vocal fold vibration that defines English /z/, especially in word-final position where devoicing is already a natural tendency.
Listen for the pattern
This substitution is particularly costly in English because /z/ carries heavy grammatical weight — plural endings ('dogs'), third-person verb endings ('runs'), and possessives all rely on it — so devoicing it can blur grammatical information as well as individual words.
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Sources (2)
- Exploring Phonetic Differences and Cross-Linguistic Influences: A Comparative Study of English and Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation Patterns — 2024
- Mandarin speakers frequently substitute non-existent English sounds like /θ/ and /ð/ with /s/ or /z/, and struggle with voiced consonants due to lack of corresponding phonemes in their native system.
- English speakers often confuse Mandarin tones (particularly 2nd and 3rd) and mispronounce back vowels because English lacks a tonal structure and specific vowel inventory.
- Approximately 70% of surveyed learners identified phoneme differences as the main barrier to effective pronunciation in their target language.
- Wells, J.C. (1982). Accents of English.