How to Pronounce: Possessive Forms in Science and Technology

Hello, I'm John Russell.

We will continue our science and technology theme by listening to a VOA Learning English

Science and Technology report from Brian Lynn.

The American space agency, NASA, explains, the moon's atmosphere is very thin and weak.

I'd like to draw your attention to a few words, the moon's atmosphere.

We have an article, the word the, the possessive noun moon's, and the noun atmosphere.

We have these individual words that together form a piece of language known as a noun phrase.

This noun phrase can teach you an important idea about pronunciation.

In English, we spell the possessive form with an apostrophe s.

In our example, it is at the end of the word moon.

But even though we spell the possessive form with an apostrophe s, we pronounce it, in

this case, with a sound that is like this. z moon moonz

What would our noun phrase sound like if we did not pronounce it like a native speaker?

It might sound like this. The moon's atmosphere.

Our goal is to sound more like a native speaker.

So we need to be able to produce the distinction between these two sounds. s z The difference is this. s Is voiceless. z Is voiced.

This is the way you should say it. The moon's atmosphere. That's all for today.

Keep up the good work.