[pests]

"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 am thinking this may just be related to that.

[whycome]

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.

[pests]

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.

[DonHopkins]

Didn't the muppets do a skit about s? ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9652HzGWE

Or maybe it was the Electric Company's...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMuI6WI6MJU

Nothing beats Tom Lehrer's song about Silent E:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs

[psunavy03]

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.

[pests]

That's why I include my region whenever speaking about linguistics!