comprise/house

[anniebobo]

comprise /[FONT=&quot]kəmˋprai[/FONT][FONT=&quot]z[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT] /
house /[FONT=&quot]hau[/FONT][FONT=&quot]s[/FONT][FONT=&quot]/
How do I know "se"represent z or s in phonetics?[/FONT]

 

[GoesStation]

It's more likely to be z in verbs and s in nouns. "House" is a perfect example: it's a z in to house and an s in ​the house.

 

[Raymott]

And it's 'z' in 'houses'.

Counterexamples to GS:
Verbs with 's': chase, base, release, increase (etc.)...
- verbs with stress on first syllable: promise, practise, purchase...
Nouns with 'z': hose, nose, compromise, reprise, surprise, fuse, phase, phrase, ease...

There may be some merit in what GS says, but his thesis needs a lot of work.
My reply to the original question: You don't know.

 

[GoesStation]

There may be some merit in what GS says, but his thesis needs a lot of work.
My reply to the original question: You don't know.

I spoke in haste. I was thinking of cases like house where a verb and a noun are spelled the same but pronounced differently. I'm not sure my thesis applies to more than a handful of such word pairs though.