Nunzioaccent coach
consonant · the sound library

“s” as in sun

Written /s/ in the phonetic alphabet — but you will never need that in the app.

One of the 40 sounds Nunzio listens for. When you read a sentence aloud, the app scores every single sound in it on your phone — this page is what he knows about this one: what tends to come out in its place, and what to do about it.

What tends to come out instead

“s” slipping into “sh” (as in shoe)

Bring your tongue tip forward close to the ridge, spread your lips, and make a narrow hissing channel.

“Too shushy! Bring the tongue forward, spread the lips flat, and make the thin sharp sss — like air from a bicycle tire!”Nunzio, when he hears it

“s” slipping into “z” (as in zoo)

Turn your voice off — same tongue position, but pure breath with no vocal-cord buzz.

“Too much buzzing, bello! This one is only air — hand on throat, feel NOTHING. Silent like sneaking to the fridge at night!”Nunzio, when he hears it

Where it lives in real words

us fix ice sam sat sea

In the app, this sound is put under pressure in Everyday English — whole sentences built so it cannot hide.

Compared head to head

The classic mix-ups involving this sound, one page per pair: sun vs think, sun vs shoe, sun vs zoo.

It also likes to turn up uninvited

People often say “s” when a word actually wants “th” as in think, “sh” as in shoe, “z” as in zoo — each of those pages shows the way back.

Reading about a sound is one thing. Hearing which ones you miss is another.

Nunzio records you reading a sentence, scores every sound in it on your phone — nothing is uploaded — and tells you the one thing worth fixing. Nunzio — Accent Coach is coming to the App Store and Google Play.