Pronunciation exercises: s vs ŝ

S is /s/ and Ŝ is /ʃ/. It may be confusing because sometimes an English cognate may have S in Esperanto and other times it may have Ŝ. This happens mainly before a consonant.

S in English and Ŝ in Esperanto

 * ŝlimo (slime); ŝtalo (steel); ŝtato (state); ŝteli (steal); ŝtono (stone);

S in English and S in Esperanto

 * spaco (space); spekti (watch, cf. spectator); stelo (star); strato (street); studo (study)

Minimal pairs
stelo (star) - ŝtelo (theft);