SpeakMetry
Start free

Pronunciation · Minimal pairs · high functional load

/s/ vs /z/ — price vs prize

In short

The voiceless /s/ and voiced /z/ separate ice/eyes, peace/peas and advice/advise — and /z/ carries English grammar: most plural -s and third-person -s endings are actually /z/. This contrast carries a HIGH functional load — confusing these two sounds frequently turns one real word into another, which is what actually damages intelligibility (Munro & Derwing 2006 found one high-load error hurts comprehensibility more than three low-load errors combined).

How to hear (and make) the difference

Same tongue position, different engine: /z/ buzzes like a bee. Touch your throat — it must vibrate on 'prize', 'plays', 'dogs'. Devoicing final /z/ blurs your grammar as well as your sounds.

Most challenging for Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai speakers.

8 minimal pairs with audio

Play each side and copy it. Then read the pairs aloud — can a listener tell which word you said?

  • price/praɪs/
    prize/praɪz/
  • ice/aɪs/
    eyes/aɪz/
  • peace/piːs/
    peas/piːz/
  • advice/ədˈvaɪs/
    advise/ədˈvaɪz/
  • place/pleɪs/
    plays/pleɪz/
  • rice/raɪs/
    rise/raɪz/
  • loose/luːs/
    lose/luːz/
  • course/kɔːs/
    cause/kɔːz/

Test your ear

Perception comes before production: if you can't hear the contrast, you can't say it reliably. Free, unlimited, different voices each round.

Listening drill

/s/ vs /z/ — price vs prize

1/8

Same tongue position, different engine: /z/ buzzes like a bee. Touch your throat — it must vibrate on 'prize', 'plays', 'dogs'. Devoicing final /z/ blurs your grammar as well as your sounds.

The contrast in sentences

Same sentence frame, different word — say both versions and make them unmistakably different.

  • What a great price!

    What a great prize!

  • The ice surprised me.

    The eyes surprised me.

Keep exploring

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between price and prize?
price /praɪs/ uses the /s/ sound while prize /praɪz/ uses /z/. Same tongue position, different engine: /z/ buzzes like a bee. Touch your throat — it must vibrate on 'prize', 'plays', 'dogs'. Devoicing final /z/ blurs your grammar as well as your sounds.
What are minimal pairs and why practise them?
Minimal pairs are word pairs that differ by exactly one sound (ship/sheep). Practising them trains your ear and mouth on the single difference that separates the words — perception research (high variability phonetic training) shows this transfers to real speaking.
Which learners find the /s/ vs /z/ contrast hardest?
It is most challenging for Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai speakers, whose first languages don't separate these two sounds.
Do these pairs matter for IELTS Speaking?
Yes — high-functional-load contrasts like this one are exactly what the examiner hears as 'mispronunciation reduces clarity'. Mastering them is one of the fastest routes from Band 6 to Band 7 pronunciation.

Next step

Get scored saying these pairs

SpeakMetry's Pronunciation Coach listens to you say each pair and tells you whether the contrast survived — plus which sound to fix and how.

Try the speaking drill free