Minimal pair /es/ and /s/

Who makes this mistake?

If you are not a Spanish speaker. you probably don’t need to worry about this mistake. This minimal pair is a common problem for Spanish speakers and mostly occurs purely out of habit. I have not heard other learners of English make this mistake. Often in Spanish, words with an /s/ sound at the beginning are preceded by an /e/, while the corresponding word in English starts with an /s/. For example, school in Spanish is a close cognate: escuela, and school is often produced by Spanish speakers as ‘eschool’, purely out of habit.

Should this be a priority?

Since the number of pairs (words in English which are the same except for the /e/ before the /s/) sound is very small, there is little chance that this problem will cause a serious breakdown in communications. Listeners will occasionally need to think for a second to understand you and will soon get used to the fact that you add an /e/ sound before words starting with an /s/. Therefore the problem is more a matter of sounding competent.

How can I eliminate this mistake?

1. Being aware of the problem will probably help a lot. You can try to keep this in the back of your mind and concentrate on it as you speak.
2. You can also practice the pairs below, first saying the word starting with /e/ and then focus saying its pair without an /e/ sound.
3. Practice saying other words starting with /s/, focusing on not adding an /e/ sound before the /s/.