How Do You Pronounce Sad (ص)?
A heavy, full-mouthed S. English does not have it.
The sound, and why English cannot spell it
English has no ص. Start from s, then raise the back of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth and round the lips slightly, as if the s were said with a full, deep mouth. The surrounding vowels darken, sa becomes a deep "saw"-like syllable.
This heaviness (tafkhim) is what separates صَبْر (sabr, patience) from anything an English s could produce. Listen for it in الصَّلَاة (as-salah) and الصِّرَاط (as-sirat) in Surah al-Fatiha.
The four written forms
Arabic letters change shape by position, alone, at the start, in the middle, and at the end of a word.
Sad with harakat
The three short vowels: fatha says "a", kasra says "i", damma says "u".
Practice with the full Quran, word by word, in the Barakah Life app
Every ayah with word-by-word meaning, transliteration, and audio you can slow down. What you just learned here, you can practise on the whole mushaf.
Get the Barakah app