![]() ![]() For example pronouncing it clearly in the word ‘something’ or ‘together’. ‘th’ is often particularly difficult for people to pronounce at the ends of words for example ‘earth’, ‘Perth’ and when it is near the sounds /s/, /z/, /t/ or /d/. Speakers who use /f/ and /v/ for ‘th’ are often speakers of Cantonese, speakers of many African languages. f/ and /v/ actually sound quite like / θ/ and /ð /, so people will understand you very easily if you do this. Using /f/ and /v/ for ‘th’ doesn’t affect your clarity in English. Vat for that, vis for this, togeva for together Problem – using /f/ for unvoiced ‘th’ / θ/ and /v/ for voiced ‘th’ /ð/Įxamples – fing for thing, fank for thank, baf for bath Read on to find out more about why correcting ‘th’ is the bottom of your list!ģ. If you make /s/ and /z/ for ‘th’, I recommend you consider correcting it but only after you have checked your other sounds, like vowels and consonants and also improved your word stress. Speakers of German, Russian and Mandarin usually make /s/ and /z/ instead of ‘th’. Thank-sank, think-sink, thin-sin, thought-sort and others. Of course, there is also the problem that when you change unvoiced ‘th’ to /s/, many of the words have a different meaning and this is confusing for listeners. Using /s/ and /z/ instead of ‘th’ is quite distracting. Using /s/ and /z/ for ‘th’ can make some words in your English unclear. Zat for that, zis for this, togeza for together Problem – using /s/ for unvoiced ‘th’ / θ/ and /z/ for voiced ‘th’ /ð/Įxamples – sing for thing, sank for thank, bas for bath If your want to speak clearer English, don’t waste time working on ‘th’, you should be working on areas that actually affect how clear your English is to listeners.Ģ. ‘th’ is a very common sound in English, so it’s quite noticeable to native speakers when you use /t/ and /d/ instead of ‘th’ but they will understand it very easily and you will still be clear.įor this reason, correcting ‘th’ should be a low priority for most English language learners. It really doesn’t make words you say unclear. ![]() Pronouncing /t/ and /d/ instead of ‘th’ has very little effect on your speech clarity. For example, many speakers of European languages, speakers from India, and many speakers from Asia. This is by far the most common way that non-native speakers pronounce ‘th’. Problem – using /t/ for unvoiced ‘th’ / θ/ and /d/ for voiced ‘th’ /ð/Įxamples – ting for thing, tank for thank, bat for bathĭat for that, dis for this, togeda for together This depends on what their first language is.ġ. There are a few different ways that people pronounce (or mispronounce) ‘th’. So, what sounds to non-native speakers tend to make instead of ‘th’. The air blows very gently between the top teeth and the tongue to make the ‘th’ sound. What you DO need to focus on is the position of your tongue for each ‘th’ sound.Īs you saw in the video above, ‘th’ the tongue needs to be slightly between the top and bottom teeth. It really doesn’t matter if you confuse voiced and unvoiced ‘th’. In the unlikely event that you do confuse unvoiced and voiced ‘th’ its OK! It won’t affect your clarity. If you are wanting to improve your ‘th’ you’ll need to focus your energy on getting the right mouth position – don’t worry about the voicing too. ![]() Some students are very worried that they’ll make a voiced ‘th’ instead of unvoiced ‘th’ or vice versa. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) the voiced ‘th’ is written like this:ĭon’t worry about the voicing. The voiced ‘th’ has vibration from the voice box and this is the sound in words like ‘that’ and ‘the’. There is no vibration from the voice box for unvoiced ‘th’. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) the unvoiced ‘th’ is written like this: It is the unvoiced ‘th’ sound that you practised in the video above. ‘Unvoiced’ means there is no vibration from the voice box and this is the sound in words like ‘think’ and ‘thought’. ![]() The mouth position for the two sounds (unvoiced and voiced ‘th’) is exactly the same. There are two types of ‘th’ sound in English – unvoiced and voiced. ![]()
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