Quote:
The 'su' often has an abbreviated pronunciation, especially at the end of words, frequently even to the point of the vowel being unvoiced completely (or at least close enough to sound that way to inexperienced ears).
If you're listening to anything with native Japanese language, listen carefully any time it sounds like some one ends a word with an 's' sound, and it will almost certainly be a 'su' syllable. If you listen carefully enough, though, you might notice in many cases that the 'u' was there, just "clipped".
The exact pronunciation can very by dialect, but it can also vary vastly by personal choice of voicing. So long as you don't emphasize it at the end of a word, you'll be OK. Just try to imitate what you're hearing.
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I've found that, sometimes, in order to add emphasis (and exaggerating a bit, in my opinion), the "su" is vividly pronounced. It's usually heard in those 「ありがとうございます！」 exclamations when in front of a crowd (I'm currently thinking about hosts of live presentations in front of an audience, mainly because I just watched one
), the ございます is soundly accented towards the end of the word, and thus the "su" is fully pronounced.
I don't know if it's too common, though, or if my analysis is in any way correct.