native English speakers, when you pronounce the s sound, is the tip of your tongue down toward your bottom teeth or up behind your top teeth?

Bottom. If it's at the top, the sound is "th"

Top teeth. I have no idea how to make the sound correctly with my tongue toward my bottom teeth! I just tried to do it, and it sounds very wrong.

Bottom teeth.

The bottom teeth

So, this is something I think about occasionally as it's something I had to deep-dive into to lessen my speech impediment. Anecdote below: I had a rather intense lisp when I was younger, like childhood all the way to high school. It didn't really keep anyone from understanding me, but it was obvious enough. I was always told to just close my jaw, put my tongue tip behind my top teeth, and blow. It always came out very slurry and slushy sounding, and I couldn't produce the same sharp /s/ that my family and peers did. End of high school was when I began to really delve into linguistics, and discovered that not all /s/ are created equal throughout languages. This is where I found the dentalized laminal alveolar /s/ ([s̺]), which is the "behind the bottom teeth" /s/. It was like a lightbulb came on. After just days of practicing and paying attention to my pronunciation in casual conversation, it's really as if my lisp just vanished. I now deem this the superior /s/. ;)

Top teeth

Behind my top teeth, but further back. It's (in my dialect) an alveolar fricative, not a dental fricative

The very tip of my tongue is against the gums behind my lower front teeth.

The edge of my tongue is touching the entire ridge just behind my top teeth (forming a sort of pocket), except for the tip, which is leaving a small gap between the ridge and a spot on my tongue about 1-2cm back from the tip of my tongue. The gap is just big enough to make a whistle-like effect to make the 's' sound, and transitioning to the 't' sound is easy to do by lifting the tongue tip to bounce it off the skin just behind the front teeth and momentarily interrupt air flow. Similar to the 'th' sound, where the tongue is forming a large pocket behind the top teeth, but pull the tongue back a bit so it's on skin instead of teeth and move the gap from both sides of the tongue tip to just behind the tip itself. Also, my tongue is relaxed in an 's' sound (rounder tongue) while it's spread out (flatter tongue) for 'th'

My tongue doesn't touch my teeth at all making the ssss sound

Just behind the top gums. If I moved my tongue any farther forward I would make a T sound.

Native speaker from northeastern US. Mine is the bottom teeth. Didn’t know this was weird.

Huh never thought about it. It points down towards my bottom teeth while a bit touches the top of my mouth behind the front teeth ....it's inbetween

Up behind top teeth. Though it's not just the tip of the tongue. To make an s sound I kinda roll my tongue slightly and press it up against the space behind my front teeth, slightly rolled so as to allow air through that space between your tongue and the gums behind your teeth. The th sound is made with the tip of the tongue against the top teeth. I can't really even figure out how I'd make an s sound with my bottom teeth.

When I first read this, my first reaction was that it was a really strange question, and of course it's my top teeth... but it's not. The tip of my tongue rests on my bottom teeth. The sound comes from a bit farther back, near the top teeth, but the tip of my tongue is definitely down at the bottom.

I place my tongue at the base of my bottom teeth

I have the tip of my tongue pointed at the gums of my upper teeth, directed slightly downwards. The air travels between the roof of my mouth and the part of my tongue right behind the tip.

Neutral, neither up or down. You raise the whole tongue a bit closer to the hard palate to form the sound but there's no effort to make the tip go anywhere in particular.

bottom, if it lags on the top for any reason, I end up with a lisp.

I can do it 2 ways. 1. The tongue is narrow but relaxed in the center and base. This means the sides of my tongue are touching the roof of my mouth. Then I breathe (similar force as the H sound) directing air through the small tunnel I have created with my tongue and down the back of my teeth. It is important to note the tip of my tongue is not touching anything in this method. It is simply hovering behind my top teeth. 2. The second way is similar, but the difference is the tip of my tongue is touching my bottom teeth. If your tongue is too far down you will hear more of a wind sound. If that is the case, narrow your tongue more and pull it up your teeth a bit. I hope this helps.

Bottom. Sides are up, blocking air from going out of my molars/canines. If I raise the tip of my tongue to the top teeth, no air can come out at all.

Sits in the tray formed from my bottom teeth

Tip of the tongue is touching the top of my front bottom teeth. Tongue arches up pretty steeply behind that, shapes in a way to create a small channel between itself and the roof of my mouth, and the whistle-like S sound seems to be created mostly there. Mouth is mostly closed, and I'm gently sort of biting the sides of my tongue between my molars, to help get my tongue into the correct shape and position. Details might vary depending on the size of someone's mouth. Mine is small. I had to have at four teeth taken out before I got braces, and there was barely room for my wisdom teeth when they came in. I'd have been better off getting them taken out too, in hindsight. Small mouth might be why I sort of bite the sides of my tongue. Mouth has to be mostly closed to make the S sound, and there probably just isn't room for my tongue to form the correct shape unless some of it sticks out to the sides, between my molars.

Top. (As others have pointed out, it's not actually the tip of the tongue and not touching the teeth.) It's kind of blowing my mind that a lot of people are saying bottom. When I try that it, I end up with a lisping sound that's not quite *s*, not quite *sh*, and not quite *th* (as in "then").

According to the IPA american sounds: https://youtu.be/6hWPXaPXrnQ?si=gwFl2aLTHx0UpMdn

Top teeth…I had no clue that “S” sound could be made using the bottom teeth.

SLP and speech coach here! S is made with airflow thru the the tip of your tongue and your alveolar ridge which is right behind your top teeth. That's not to say you can't create a similar sound by placing your tongue elsewhere - but this position is going to help you achieve the clearest sound and also ease transitions from one sound to another. You can see the breakdown here: [https://youtu.be/6hWPXaPXrnQ?si=vWqFpFfHcnnZEtl9](https://youtu.be/6hWPXaPXrnQ?si=vWqFpFfHcnnZEtl9)

Speech language pathologist here. The correct way for the English /s/ phoneme is sides of tongue bracing against top teeth, creating a tiny groove down the middle where air escapes from. Kids who have a difficult time bracing the sides of their tongue at the top will often brace the tip against the bottom teeth and create an s that sounds “slushy”. If you speak a language that doesn’t produce any phonemes in the same way as English /s/, you may have trouble getting the correct position.

"think" tongue on top teeth, "sink" tongue on bottom teeth.

Bottom

So I said some s words (mostly "hiss") and it looks like the most natural feeling is for the tongue to NOT be touching any teeth. It's 'coiled' up like a snake about to strike (how appropriate). When I push the tongue forward to get an idea of which teeth it's closer to, it slides along the bottom of my mouth towards the top of the bottom teeth. So I'd say "closer to the bottom teeth"

i just checked by trying to say “s” with my fingers in either spot. i’m shocked to report that i say “s” with my bottom teeth!

Bottom teeth right where the gums meet the teeth, but I also had speech therapy as a child because I couldn't make the S sound, so I might not be a good example.

Floating just behind my top teeth, making the changes between t, ts and th very easy. Bottom teeth s sounds like a lisp to me. Steve Jobs has a bottom teeth s. There's just not enough sibilance. I can make it because I learnt about it and I like mimicking voices and sounds so I wanted to know how to do it. Still sounds like a lisp to me though.

Hi! This can be done both ways. In my natural accent it’s typically done behind the top teeth, but I have a lisp. When I was a child I did speech therapy and my speech therapist taught me to do it behind my bottom teeth instead, because it’s easier. So basically, I know for sure that both methods are valid.

It's on the bottom... but I also lisped as a child so maybe don't follow me

Tucked in behind the bottom teeth to form a "hill" in the middle of my tongue to pass the air over.

Lots of Americans in each camp, not necessarily right or wrong way if you can make it acoustically the clear in connected speech. I’m a speech pathologist working with school aged children so I’ve done a lot of sessions on this. Usually I teach tongue tip up because it’s easier to teach but if a kid more naturally does tongue tip down we go with that.

Behind the top teeth

I’m in the Midwest and it’s behind my bottom teeth. If I try to put it behind my top teeth the air can’t get out to make the S sound, my tongue is in the way.

bottom

I'm out classed linguistically on this subreddit but I've often wondered if the placement of the tongue for this sound influences which people substitute sh sounds ahead of T sounds. Such as shtreet instead of street. It's totally possible it's unrelated but just something I've wondered about.

My time to shine! I'm a speech language pathologist. When pronouncing the /s/ sound, some people bring their tongue tip up and some people bring their tongue tip down. Bringing the tongue tip up is more common and it's taught as the "standard" way to pronounce /s/, but bringing the tongue tip down is not wrong, it's just a variation. The term to describe this is called "tippers and dippers." [Article talking about this. ](https://www.nspt4kids.com/parenting/tipper-vs-dipper-how-to-produce-s-and-z-speech-sounds-north-shore-pediatric-therapy)

hmm. I just tried to test it a bit and the answer is both -- it changes depending on what the other sounds around the s are.

Bottom

Just behind my top teeth

Top teeth. I can't do it with the bottom teeth.

I do both. For initial 's' followed by a consonant (snake, stop, score) it seems the tongue goes up behind the top teeth. For initial 's' followed by a vowel (seek, sat, swell) it goes to the bottom. For terminal and midword 's' it seems like it's always top. Idk 😂

https://youtu.be/o8WeXem5YMQ?si=qURfNpPYxQstlPka An interesting video for anyone who is baffled by the question.

The tip is at the bottom teeth while the blade is at the roof of my mouth near the top teeth.

Native speaker here, from the south but I don’t have a southern accent. My tongue touches the bottom tweet, right where they meet the gum line when I make an S. I’m not sure how people are saying top teeth, I can’t make any noise with my tongue pressed against them lol

Bottom

Bottom teeth

How do you make an S with your bottom teeth?? Mine is up top, a little bit behind the top teeth. It becomes "th" if you move it forward, just underneath the top teeth. EDIT: apparently this varies substantially among native English speakers. [https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/1sqte1/have\_i\_been\_mispronouncing\_the\_letter\_s\_all\_my/](https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/1sqte1/have_i_been_mispronouncing_the_letter_s_all_my/)

Going by feeling, I'd say top, as I'm pressing my tongue up toward the roof of my mouth and forcing air over it.

Native Canadian speaker here. Mine is the top teeth. Crazy to me that some Of you are putting it to the bottom.

Neither. My tongue is right in the middle. I can't hiss with it behind either top or bottom teeth.

I guess I'm unusual, because I get a clear 's' sound with the tip of my tongue behind my top teeth. \*Behind\*, mind you. I get 'th' when the tip is on the ends of the top teeth. This is how I've always done it. I can get an 's' with my tongue behind my bottom teeth if I close my jaw a bit and force air over the top-front of my tongue rather than the tip. I've never done it this way and I'm surprised to find I'm in the minority.

A lot of people in this thread are either not reading or not thinking about your question closely at all. S and T are both made at the same place, which is with the tip of your tongue on the place where your top teeth meet your gums. There are no consonants made in English where your tongue touches the bottom teeth. That wouldn't even make a noise because all the air would just flow over your tongue and out of your mouth without stopping.