How to pronounce word with th+d as in 'birthday'?

If you mean th and d in sequence, I can't think of any words like that off hand. Can you give us an example of some of the words you are asking about?

Examples, please!

I can think of one with an unvoiced 'th' followed by an unvoiced 'd'

When Mary birthed Jesus... [both are pronounced, but the 'd' sounds more like 't'

Voiced 'th' followed by voiced 'd'

He gently smoothed the wood with sandpaper [in rapid speech it may be all joined together]

In "birthday" the th is pronounced as it is in thus, and the day part is pronounced just like the stand alone word "day." So, you pronounce the th sound together as it is pronounced in many words at both the beginning and the end (thus; death) and then the d in day just as it is pronounced in the single word day.

In otherwords, you would pronounce it just as if it were two words: birth

sam1947In "birthday" the th is pronounced as it is in thus, and the day part is pronounced just like the stand alone word "day." So, you pronounce the th sound together as it is pronounced in many words at both the beginning and the end (thus; death) and then the d in day just as it is pronounced in the single word day. In otherwords, you would pronounce it just as if it

I am no expert on how to describe pronunciation, so I accept that I may not have described it accurately for someone who is. I just meant that in both cases the combined letter sound is pronounced and not silent.

I don't know what you mean by "voiced" and "not voiced", as, again, this is not my area of expertise. Certainly the th is pronounced at the end of death, and that is all I was

I thought of one I think fits this. We use "cath" as a shortened version of catheterized. Once one is inserted, nurses say the person has been "cathed," or /kæ?t/. You could say "Katht." Is that what you meant?

If the "th" is voiced, the "d" would be like a /d/.

Bathed = /beiðd/

I hope this is what you are asking about.

pousudo Do I need to clearly pronounce both th and d sounds?

You do. It sounds a little like "burf-day". If you can say that, just substitute the "th" sound for the "f" and you'll have "birthday".

pousucan I combine the sounds somwhat?

No.

CJ

That's funny, because "burfday", with the f sound, is what almost every toddler and very young child says before they learn to say, "birth (with the th sound) day. I'm told that small children mispronounce words because they can't hear the distinctions, not because they cannot make the correct sounds. I'm not a speech therapist, so I don't know for sure if that is correct, but a relative who is

sam1947I don't know what you mean by "voiced" and "not voiced", as, again, this is not my area of expertise. Certainly the th is pronounced at the end of death, and that is all I was implying.

Quick linguistics lesson. 'Voiced' consonants are pronounced while using the vocal cords. 'Unvoiced' are the opposite. Most come in pairs, meaning that they are

I wish I could hear you say these things in person, although I think I'm getting what you mean from your excellent examples. I had never given any thought to whether or not I was using my vocal cords! Thanks for the lessen!