How's and House - are they pronounced differently?

Hi Pter

How's is pronounced [ha?z], with a voiced s because there is a vowel sound before the s. House does not have a voiced s: [ha?s]. However, just to make things a little more complicated, the plural is pronounced [ha?zi:z].

CB

Cool BreezeHi Pter

How's is pronounced [ha?z], with a voiced s because there is a vowel sound before the s. House does not have a voiced s: [ha?s]. However, just to make things a little more complicated, the plural is pronounced [ha?zi:z].

CB

Sorry CB, I think I didn't make it clear. My question is not about the voiced z a

Hi, those two vowels are the same to me. The only difference between "how's" and "house" is the final consonant. I think this is true for both General American and the kind of British English that is usually learned. I don't know if there are people who make a distinction or situations where a subtle difference might be noticed... There probably are. You know, there are so many accents.

Hi Cool Breeze,

How's is pronounced [ha?z], with a voiced s because there is a vowel sound before the s.

Your rule about English /s/ being voiced after a vowel sound does not always apply (house below is not pronounced with a /z/-sound although the preceding sound is a vowel). It is also worth noting that English /z/ has a devoiced allophone. Indeed, it is quite rare

Hi Kooyeen,

The vowels you describe are not the same, neither in General American nor British English RP. Because of pre-fortis clipping, the diphthong in "how's" is almost twice as long as that in "house".

Anonymous

How's is pronounced [ha?z], with a voiced s because there is a vowel sound before the s.

Your rule about English /s/ being voiced after a vowel sound does not always apply (house below is not pronounced with a /z/-sound although the preceding sound is a vowel).

However, just to make

Pter-

annonymous gave you the answer you want to hear, I think. The "ou" or "ow" sound is the same (at least in Amer. English), but the length is different. Before the /z/ sound (re: how's) the vowel is longer. Before the /s/ sound, the vowel is held for less time.

The same holds true for

race (/s/) and raise (/z/)

rice and Rise

price and prize

Thank you everyone for the explanations. I have been struggling with this for a long time. I need some time to digest what you said. I know pre-fortis clipping applies to vowel but didn't know it also applies to diphthongs. Another pair of words that sound slightly different to me:

eyes vs ice

The first one ends with a voiced z and the second one with a voiceless s. Do they

Hi Cool Breeze,

How's and house are different in that how's is a contraction of how and is, two words, and the rule applies at least in theory in such cases.

This is exactly the rule I had in mind! What you offered previously simply was not clear enough to the reader.

The only pronunciation Webster's Unabridged Dictionary gives f

AnonymousSadly I made a mistake in my previous posting: the correct phoneme symbol for the s's in 'houses' is indeed /z/, although of course English /z/ can be rather /s/-like.
Hi,

I am now confused even more than before. House is pronounced [ha?s], and because it ends with "s", a voiceless consonant, [a?] is shortened. However, when it is changed to plur