2.8%

That is how often a full S survives

Across all 72 recorded interviews in the PRESEEA-Sevilla corpus, a clean, textbook S at the end of a syllable turned up in 2.8% of cases.

So yes. Seville really does drop its S.

TWO WAYS

But dropped means two different things

In the same corpus, the S vanished completely 49.7% of the time and softened into a breathy H 45.2% of the time.

Half the time there is a sound to catch. Half the time there is not.

88.8%

Inside a word, you get the breath

Among university-educated speakers, an S in the middle of a word came out as a breathy H 88.8% of the time. Hasta becomes ah-ta. Esto becomes eh-to.

This is the highest-frequency pattern in the whole corpus.

99.6%

At the end of a word, it just goes

Of every S that disappeared completely, 99.6% disappeared at the end of a word. Word endings are where Spanish keeps its grammar.

That is the part Seville deletes.

85.8%

The hardest place to listen

Right before a pause, at the end of a sentence, the S is simply gone 85.8% of the time.

Exactly where a learner concentrates hardest.

4.8%

The advice is backwards here

Before a pause, the breathy H that every guide tells you to listen for happens 4.8% of the time. A full, clear S is nearly twice as likely, at 8.7%.

You were taught half an accent.

NO EFFECT

Grammar does not protect the S

The researchers tested whether a plural or a verb ending survives more often than a meaningless S. They found no significant effect and dropped the variable.

La casa and las casas can land on your ear as the same sounds.

56.8% / 40.8%

Who is talking changes what you hear

Speakers with less formal education deleted the S 56.8% of the time. Speakers with more deleted it 40.8% of the time and softened it instead.

Nobody in that table is producing textbook S sounds.

25.5%

Seville is losing its famous seseo

In educated Seville, seseo made up 25.54% of the relevant sounds in recordings from 2009 to 2015. Studies of 1970s recordings put it at 70% and 74%.

The city that gave Spain its seseo now mostly says it the northern way.

19 OF 24

There is no single Seville accent

Nineteen of the 24 educated speakers used both pronunciations inside one interview, with the same interviewer, on everyday topics.

A range one person moves through, sentence by sentence.

THE VERDICT

Listen to the vowels, not the endings

Train on the middle of words, where the breath is almost guaranteed. Let the noun endings go, and let the article carry the plural.

Tap for the full piece, with every table, both charts and all three studies.