The pronunciation of the sequence <se> at the end of a word is a bit of a pain. There are however some regularities. Here is one of them. If the sequence is preceded by a consonant sound, the pronunciation is nearly always s. Examples:
apse copse corpse else lapse manse pulse rinse sense tense traipse
Of course we can’t get away without exceptions. The word cleanse has the unexpected pronunciation klenz.
Alternative sound
2013_07_29
Updated 2015_04_01