The use of plural –s in English has three different, but very regular, phonological alternatives: 1) We add /s/ to words like bat, book, cough, and ship.

2) We add /z/ to words like cab, cave, lad, rag, and thing.

3) We add /əz/ to words like bus, bush, church, judge, and maze.

(i) From the given words, list the sound segments that precede the plural ending (in other words, what is the last phoneme of each noun)? You should have three sets.

(ii) What are the features that each of these three groups of sound have in common? You should have one shared feature per group.