Pronunciation of consonants at the end of words

 

Many learners fail to pronounce well consonants or groups of consonants at the end of words, mostly speakers of languages with few combinations of consonant sounds (Japanese, Chinese or Spanish).   Here's a list with the most common combinations.

Remember: final D's sound almost as hard as T's (stopped > ssstop't)

One consonant	Consonant +s	Consonant + hard consonant	Two consonants + s
cat	cats
stop	stops	stopped
walk	walks	walked
god	gods
job	jobs	robbed
bag	bags	bagged
live	lives	lift	lifts
love	loves	loved
bath	baths	bathed
call	calls	adult	adults
teacher	teachers	work	works
name	names	named
coin	coins	point	points
house	houses /_sis/	list	lists
wash	washes /_shis/	washed
face	faces /_sis/	faced
watch	watches /_chis/	watched
change	changes /_dshis/	changed
freeze	freezes /_dsis/
tax	taxes /_ksis/	sixth	sixths

If you fail to pronounce them correctly, try these two tricks:
- Pronounce the words slowly, make the consonants very long, and a pause between hard consonants (stopped > ssstop'd). Then do it faster.
- Add a vowel sound at the end (stopped > ssstop'de). Then remove it.