"Housing" esposes more of the howz sound. The first is just howce.
Thinking about this more... I just realized something. I struggled with a lisp and speech therapy in grade school. I distinctly remember a lesson where I was being instructed on how certain words ending in "s" actually sound like "z" like "apples" and I was pronouncing it without the z.
I was just trying to illustrate it better. I think the majority will say "howz new immigrants."
There are a few weird "same-spelling" words. You can refuse to throw refuse in the trash can. You can estimate how many estimates you might get. But I suspect that you're not a suspect in this case. But, if you get close, I'll close this thread.
A large number of those are called heteronyms which include a noun and a verb, the noun getting the stress on the first syllable while the verb receives the stress on the second. But yes I agree.
This thread is also getting into such detail that people's regional accents will start to come into play as to how they pronounce things. "Pin" vs "pen," etc.
I'm not sure that's right, if the "z"-pronounciation is for verbs. I would think the Department of Housing is talking about "housing" as a noun, rather than "housing" in a verby-way. Like the "department of transportation". You can transport something, but you don't transportation something. Or "Department of Education" isn't educationing people, it's educating people.
> I'm not sure that's right, if the "z"-pronounciation is for verbs.
It is right. The rule you are stating is an overgeneralization; it is correct for specifically distinguishing the verb forms “house” and “houses” from the singular and plural noun forms “house” and “houses”, but not really otherwise (maybe by derivation, in that “housing” is “that which houses”, but...)
Thinking about this more... I just realized something. I struggled with a lisp and speech therapy in grade school. I distinctly remember a lesson where I was being instructed on how certain words ending in "s" actually sound like "z" like "apples" and I was pronouncing it without the z.
I am thinking this may just be related to that.