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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

TH sound

Hi,

A little background, im Dutch and in my language there is no TH sound like the one in English (as in 'three or thief', and at the end of a word, as in 'with, month or death, etc') and it's giving me some difficulties.

When I pronunciate three for example, it sounds more like "fhree", but when I hear it on TV or somewhere else I can hear a slightly harder T sound in it, which I'm unable to reproduce.
The method as I learned it is to put your tongue between your teeth against the upper teeth and force the air through the gap.
Could someone explain the exact method on how to make this sound in detail?

The same TH + plural sound is difficult for me as well. Like "months" ends up sounding like mon-f-s.
How am I supposed to pronunciate this properly?

Thanks for any help in advance.
  

Top answer

I guess that's the most difficult sound for a non-native speaker. I find it difficult too. The tip of your tongue should be between your upper and lower teeth.

— Kooyeen

  • I guess that's the most difficult sound for a non-native speaker.
  • I find it difficult too.
  • The tip of your tongue should be between your upper and lower teeth.
  • It could seem simple, but it's not.
  • If you think you are doing that correctly but the sound is not too similar to the one of native speakers, you have to correct the position of you tongue.
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23 Answers
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I guess that's the most difficult sound for a non-native speaker. I find it difficult too. The tip of your tongue should be between your upper and lower teeth. It could seem simple, but it's not. If you think you are doing that correctly but the sound is not too similar to the one of native speakers, you have to correct the position of you tongue. It could be that you are sticking out your tongue
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Thanks for the advice, but it doesn't really help me any further unfortunately.
What I have the most trouble with is the TH sound at the end of a word as a plural (deaths, months, etc).
Unless I'm doing it completely wrong the TH sound is something like a cross between a T and an F,
but I'm having a very hard time going from an F sound to an S without having a short pause betwe
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Its not just non-native speakers who face this difficulty! Spare a thought for the native speaker who struggles to distinguish f, v and th (more common than you might fink, and there is almost no help available for him or her because correct pronunciation is taken so much for granted). In fact it was only when I was learning French that I realised I might not be alone with my impedime
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If you are getting an F sound, you are touching your upper teeth to your lower lip, more or less biting your lower lip. You'll never get a TH that way. Get your lower lip out of the way! Bite your tongue, not your lower lip! Unless you are in danger of biting the tip of your tongue, you can't make a TH!

CJ
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10Get your lower lip out of the way!12blockquote
15002br
02br
00I almost fell off my chair with laughter when I read that!02br
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00PS: Luckily for Spanish students, both English 'th' sounds are present in Castilian Spanish (in our 'z' and in our 'd') -- t
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0I spend a lot of my working day trying to help children achieve a "th" - it's certainly not just second language learners who find it hard! Technically the advice about putting your tongue between your teeth is correct, but in reality it is pretty rare to actually do this in the pace of connected speech.02br
02br
00Something that often works for word final "th" is to think
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0 Can anyone tell me what is the difference in speech between wordy and worthy?How can I spell them correctly? 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Conchita5712cite10PS: Luckily for Spanish students, both English 'th' sounds are present in Castilian Spanish (in our 'z' and in our 'd') -- that's one less hurdle to overcome!12blockquote
10Are there only two 'th' sounds? I though there were three: that in "think", that in "there" and that in "Anthony" (I'm n
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0There are two 'th' sounds in English - voiced and unvoiced. They are produced in the same way, but for the harder sound (e.g. at the beginning of THere) there is voicing from the larynx. The tongue is not further forward for a voiced th.02br
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00In BrE, Anthony is pronounced Antony. In AmE, they use the unvoiced 'th' (like in thank) in this name.0-
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0Thanks for the explanation! I had always been told there were two 'th' sounds, those you've named "voiced" and "unvoiced" (and then I had wondered why "Anthony" had none of them). But I had never realized they were so similar to one another. Funny, but before reading carefully what's in brackets in the first line, I had assumed the strong sound would be that in "thank"! By the way, are there mo
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