Usage
The letter S represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ in most languages and the IPA. It also commonly represents the voiced alveolar fricative /z/, as in Portuguese mesa or English rose and bands, or may represent the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative, as in most Portuguese dialects when syllable-finally, in Hungarian, in German (before ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩) and some English words as sugar since yod-coalescence became a dominant feature, and, as in English measure (also because of yod-coalescence), European Portuguese Islão or, in many sociolects of Brazilian Portuguese, esdrúxulo, while in some Andalusian dialects, it is merged with Peninsular Spanish ⟨c⟩ and ⟨z⟩ and pronounced .
The letter S is the seventh most common letter in English and the third-most common consonant (after t and n). In English and many other languages, primarily European ones, final ⟨s⟩ is the usual mark of plural nouns. It also usually indicates English third person present tense verbs.
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Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)
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—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
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The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)