How to pronounce the TH sound after S or Z? | American English

Hey guys! It's Hadar and this is The Accent's Way, your way to finding clarity,

confidence, and freedom in English. I got a question from Delphine asking me two

important things and I think you can benefit from the answer, as well. So this

is what she writes: Hi, Hadar. I discovered your videos on YouTube a few

days ago as I was searching some help about English pronunciation. I think

yours are very clear and really helpful actually.

Thank you for making a new one each week.

You are very welcome. Personally, I'm still struggling to

pronounce 'there are' and 'they are', I can't make the difference between the two.

This is so annoying! Do you have any tips? I know! And yes, I do.

Also, I can't pronounce properly "is there" the transition between /z/ and

the /th/ is challenging. I watched your video "Simplifying the TH sound" many

times, but I still can't find the right way to pronounce that clearly. Many thanks, Hadar.

No, thank you Delphine for these awesome questions.

And my answer is going to be divided into two. Pronouncing "they are" versus "there are"

and the S-TH transitions.

So let's begin with the first: they are and there are.

First thing you need to remember is that the word 'are' reduces into /er/ and

when a function word - it's a function word- reduces we connect it to whatever

comes before or after, okay? These words reduce in order to allow the

more important words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs to stick out. Those

words are elongated, okay? That's the basics of American intonation and rhythm.

So, when you have the word they are and the word are is reduced /er/. What you

receive is actually: there

there

Yes! Just like "over there".

So, for example, they're very happy about it.

"They're coming tonight".

"They're over there".

Do you hear it? It sounds exactly the same. "They're over there".

The word "there are"

also - the words, sorry - they also connect: "there are". Now another thing you want to

know is that when a word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with

a vowel, the consonant of the first word becomes the beginning of the second. So

instead of saying there are, you actually say the-rar the-rar. It's a lot

easier to pronounce, as well. The-rar. However, we already established

that the word 'are' reduces when it's unstressed, so what you actually get is

the-r'r - the-r'r. "There are a few things we need to talk about".

There are a few things we need to talk about. There are a bunch of great movies out there.

the-r'r - there. "They're saying that there are a few things we need to talk about".

there and they're, there - they're. Okay, good. So that's about the "there are"

vs "they are". Now, let's talk about the S-TH transitions.

When it comes to the S-TH transitions, you need to remember two things. One, the tongue has to

be very soft and quick and two, you have to go through these two positions inside the

mouth for the /z/ and /s/ and outside for the th sound. Alright.

So in the "simplifying the th video"

we talked about tip of the tongue consonants, such as t, d, n, l,

and we said that when they precede a th sound you can cheat and place the tongue

on the tip of your teeth. For example, tell them and then the tongue is already

there for the th. Instead of placing it behind the teeth as you usually do.

"Tell them" - then you have a long way to go. Tell them, in the, put this.

But when it comes to the S or Z before TH you cannot cheat and you definitely

don't want to merge the two sounds, okay?

You cannot say "ith-there any more left" or

"has zem", okay? You can kinda like leave the tongue inside and then it sounds

like two Z sounds or two TH sounds, okay? No, you have to go through both sounds "is the"

So, for that, again, your tongue has to be really quick and really soft.

What you want to do is use a lot of breath and actually push your tongue forward with

your breath. "Has-them" "Is-the" okay? Don't push your tongue against the upper

palate as you pronounce the /z/ sound,then it's gonna get stuck on the way, okay?

What you're gonna get is "is da" It's gonna sound like a D. "Is-the".

"Has them" Soft, very light, and use your breath to push the tongue forward,

and backwards same thing. "With some" -soft, "With some people"

"With some" Alright, now if you want

to practice it, what you want to do is just go through these transitions. You

know, ten, twenty, thirty times a day: z-th, z-th, z-th,

and then S-TH, and backwards, okay?

So when you go through these transitions outside of conversation, it's gonna be a

lot easier for you to use them in conversation. Okay? Your tongue is

gonna be prepared and in shape, okay. Think of it it's a muscle. There are a

lot of muscles in the tongue and you want to train those muscles and develop

muscle memory, okay? And these transitions are really, really helpful, so try it out.

I promise it'll get easier.

Alright, so that's it for today. Thank you Delphine

for your awesome email and your questions. I hope you enjoyed it. And guys,

if you liked it please share this video with your friends and come on over to my

website to check it out and get more great content. Have a wonderful week,

thank you for watching again and I will see you next week in the next video.

Bye.