TH Sound

There is no sound of "t" in think, and there is no sound of "d" in this. Th is the diagraph that represents a single sound made by putting the tongue between the teeth and aspirating. The sound in think is not voiced, but the sound in this is vocalized. The IPA representations of these sounds: think - /O/; this = /ð/.

Anonymousth as in the word think

An 'h' after a consonant is a sign that the preceding letter does not have its usual sound. The 'h' does not indicate that the preceding letter is just slightly modified. It indicates the the sound is changed completely to a different sound.

Therefore, with very few exceptions, there is no 't' sound in 'th'; there is

CalifJimThe reason for this complexity is that in English we have more sounds than we have letters.

And several of the vocabulary items came directly from Greek alphabet, especially those with th, ps and ph at the beginning.

Thank you for your explanations but I was taught that for the unvoiced th to put your tongue between your teeth and say ‘t’ and for the voiced th with the tongue in the same position say ‘d’. I now feel embarrassed that I have been mispronuncing th sound all these years.

AnonymousI was taught that for the unvoiced th to put your tongue between your teeth and say ‘t’

That's impossible. You can't produce a T or D with your tongue between your teeth!

It's possible that this unusual advice actually worked though. The only thing that matters is that you end up pronouncing the TH's correctly.

CJ

AnonymousThank you for your explanations but I was taught that for the unvoiced th to put your tongue between your teeth and say ‘t’ and for the voiced th with the tongue in the same position say ‘d’. I now feel embarrassed that I have been mispronuncing th sound all these years.

That's almost a good explanation from someone who isn't really familiar wi

t and d are plosives, i.e. the flow of air is completely stopped and then released during their articulation. ? and ð are fricatives which means that there is a gap left for a small stream of air to be able to exit the mouth causing friction on the air stream. When you are saying ? and ð you need to make sure that the tongue is only gently placed against the teeth so that some air can still escape

PhilipThat's almost a good explanation from someone who isn't really familiar with the phonetics. Don't be embarrassed!

How would you explain it to a non native English speaker please?

The way Philip and Karen have explained it in earlier posts.

pronunciationkarenWhen you are saying ? and ð you need to make sure that the tongue is only gently placed against the teeth

I think between is a better description (the tip only, of course