S is for "la esponja"

The are a few animals that start with an "s" and not an "es" in Spanish (when there is another vowel immediately after the "s"), but we chose la esponja as our icon for the letter "s" because most words in Spanish with an "s" in the beginning of the word are preceded with an "e" like in the word "español" for example.  In fact, this is the rule whenever the letter "s" is followed by another consonant.  For example, my first name is Sky, but since that breaks the rules of Spanish phonetics it is virtually impossible for monolingual Spanish speakers to say my name correctly.  When I was living in Costa Rica everyone called  me "Es-kai."  So thank you to Leeann, for giving us the best illustration of this icon for the letter "s" in español class.  Leeann has drawn a necklace around this sponge to let us know this is a feminine word.