PRONUNCIATION: The 2 ways to say ‘TH’ in English

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have

a lesson on the pronunciation of a consonant

sound which is "th", "th", the one that... Where you have to put your tongue touching

your top teeth, here, "th", "th", "th". But

just to mention that the "th" sound consonant

has two different ways of being pronounced.

There's a lighter sound which is "th", "th",

"th", like that, and there's a heavier sound

which is "th", "th", "th" where you use more

of your vocal cords. So, the difference between

these is called "unvoiced" and "voiced". It's

to do with how much you use your vocal cords

which vibrate in your throat. So, for "th",

"th", "th", I'm using my vocal cords a little

bit to get the sound to come out. I'm not

really whispering. I'm not going "th", "th",

"th", "th", which you would hardly hear. I

am making some sound with my vocal cords, "th", "th", "th", but this one, the heavier

one, you use the vocal cords much more, so

"th", "th", "th", and you can get it to vibrate.

If you can do this as an exercise, it's quite

useful. "Th", "th", "th", so you can put your

tongue on your teeth at the top, here, "th", and

you can make a continuous... You're pushing the

air through your throat and out of your mouth

in a continuous sound to get that, you know,

just to practice the right kind of sound for it.

It's a good vocal exercise. Like that. Okay. So,

that's just an exaggerated way of demonstrating

the heavier voiced version of "th". So,

different words have a different way of being

pronounced. This list, here, are the lighter

sound of "th", and this list is the heavier sound. Just some examples. Okay. So, let's

just go through and I'll just pronounce each

word for you. I think most of them will be

quite familiar vocabulary. Okay, so we have

"sing", "thank", "theatre", "thumb", what's the

thumb? "North", "south", "cloth", "tooth", "earth",

"bath", "month". Okay? So, some of the words

begin "th", some words end "th", but they're

all the lighter sound. "Th", "th", "th", like

that. And if... If in your own native language

you don't have this "th" sound, it's something

you need to practice and get used to putting

your tongue in the right position and blowing

the air through your mouth. "Th", "th", "th",

just to get that sound. If it's a sound you

haven't learnt as a child, then you need to practice it and integrate it into your way

of speaking. Okay, so that's the voiced list.

And now we have the heavier sounding list.

Again, a lot of them begin with "th", and then some of them have "th" in the middle

of the word. Okay? So, we have "this", "that",

"these", "those", "then", "their", "though",

"weather", "mother", "father", "brother". Okay,

so they are the heavier sound. "Th", "th", "th".

So, you might want to practice both of these

sounds alternating. "Th", "th", "th", "th",

"the", "the", "the", "the", "the", "the",

just getting used to them if you're not used

to making those sounds. Okay, so, well, that's

it really, but what I'm going to do now is

just to read through the lists of words a

little bit more quickly so that I'm not reading

them in an exaggerated way. I'll just read

them in a normal way as anybody would normally

say them in conversation so that you can hear

the more normal, natural way of speaking.

Okay, so here we go. So, "thing", "thank",

"theatre", "thumb", "north", "south", "cloth",

"tooth", "earth", "bath", "month". Okay. And

then this list. "This", "that", "these", "those",

"then", "there", "though", "weather", "mother",

"father", "brother". Okay, so I hope that's

been helpful. So, thank you for watching and

hope to see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.