English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 42
Category:
Spelling-to-sound
Author: JAM
<-se> again
In Tip 23 we saw that -se is pronounced /s/ at the end of the word when preceded by a consonant sound. Actually, there is at least one exception to this - the word cleanse which has the very unexpected pronunciation /klenz/. The sequence is also commonly pronounced /z/ after a vowel sound, except when a silent <r> is present. Examples: Chinese fuse lose nose phase rise.
However there are quite a few words which look like those above, but which have /s/ in their pronunciation. We'll deal with a few in this tip and leave the rest till later....
-ase: base case chase
-ease: cease crease decease decrease grease increase lease release (but NOT ease please and tease!)
-ese: obese
-eese: geese (but NOT cheese!)