Do we REALLY pronounce the TH? | Ultimate British Pronunciation Lesson 5

- Welcome back to lesson five

of the Ultimate British Pronunciation course.

The free e-book for this course is on my website,

PapaTeachMe.com.

Have you seen the show, "The Boys"?

You know the character Billy Butcher?

Now yes, he looks like John the Cockney English teacher.

But also, listen to his accent.

- What, I can't immigrate?

There's a giant green slipper

with her ass in the harbor that says different.

Spank the bastards when they here alive.

- The actor is from New Zealand.

But, this is what I imagine happened when they cast him

to play a Cockney.

(upbeat music)

- So listen, Karl, Butcher is from London, right?

So, that means Cockney.

Can you do a Cockney accent?

- I think I can do a bit of Cockney!

- Can you do more Cockney?

- Yeah, like way more. - Like, ridiculously more.

- Well maybe something like this, geezer!

- Yes, nailed it!

- I'm a proper Cockney lad from London Town!

- Well, I am having palpitations.

- I know, like, where are we right now?

We in London?

I don't know!

- I can wear a leather jacket and everything!

- All right, so like this, but all the time.

- Up the apples and pears!

Stick on the custard and jelly!

A bit of Dicky Dirt, Bob's your uncle!

- Don't get me wrong, I love the show.

I love the character.

I love the actor.

Everything is amazing about that show.

But, they definitely didn't consult a dialect coach

for that actor

because his accent doesn't sound natural at all.

One of the main reasons is this characteristic

of British pronunciation, which I'll show you today.

It's changing the 'th' sound for 'f' or a 'v' sound.

Changing the 'th' for a 'f' or a 'v',

yes, it's really fun.

But, when people are learning British accents,

they tend to use it too much,

and it sounds really unnatural and a bit weird.

So today's lesson,

I'm going to show you how we use it, when we use it,

and which accent styles use it more often.

So, this characteristic is way more common

in Cockney and Northern English accents.

But, if you want to get an RP, a posh British accent,

then you can leave this one.

But, I recommend that you learn it so you understand it

when you hear it.

So, how do you use the 'f'

and when do you use the 'v'?

Well, 'f's offer unvoiced 'th' sounds.

Wait, what is an unvoiced 'th' sound, what?

Example, in the word everything.

Say it with me.

Everything, 'th'.

That sound, 'th',

do it with me, but put your hand here.

'Th', 'th'.

See, this no vibration.

When there's no vibration when you make that sound,

that is called an unvoiced sound.

So this, that's an unvoiced 'th'.

And those 'th' sounds, that the unvoiced ones,

you can replace for 'f' sounds.

And it doesn't matter where in the word the 'th' is.

Beginning, middle, end, doesn't matter.

For example, thank you, everything, bath.

Beginning, middle, end.

If you change it, thank you,

everything, bath.

Say them with me,

first normal and next we'll change it.

Thank you.

Everything.

Bath.

Now, let's change it.

Say it with me. Repeat with me.

Practice your pronunciation.

Thank you.

Everything.

Bath.

The other 'th' is the voiced sound.

So, you would hear this

in words like these, those, clothes, leather.

Again, make the 'th' sound, put your hand here.

This time, you can feel the vibration, right?

No vibration, 'f', unvoiced,

vibration, 'v',

that's a voiced sound.

You can change those two 'v' sounds.

For example, with, together.

Let's change them.

Say it with me.

With.

Together.

But, and this is important,

when the word begins with a voiced 'th' sound,

don't change it to a 'v' sound.

For example, this,

don't change that to vis.

That's not a style and no one uses that.

So, no.

All right, let's practice that pronunciation together

with a sentence.

This is the Thursday that three thugs

in leather jackets danced together.

Personally for me, again, if you ask about my accent,

I'm just very standard London.

I'm not posh.

I'm not Cockney.

I'm just somewhere in the middle.

There's nothing special about my accent at all.

It's just very meh.

And personally, I would pronounce all the 'th's normally.

I wouldn't change them for 'f' or 'v'.

But, you might want to.

It's fine.

And it still sounds natural.

Again, don't worry.

But, remember what doesn't sound natural is changing

all of them every time.

Just like in that show, "The Boys",

that just doesn't sound natural.

So, please don't do that.

And if you want to change the 'th' sound, it's important

to learn it because then you can understand it

when you hear it.

So, repeat with me.

You don't have a choice.

This is the Thursday that three thugs

in leather jackets danced together.

And yes, you do have to look angry when you say it.

So, do that.

Your turn.

(hands clapping) Well done.

But yeah, it of course sounds really weird

if you change everything all the time.

So my advice, like always, is to use a mix.

Sometimes use the Fs and the Vs.

Sometimes don't change them.

That is the natural way.

Ah, okay.

Think of it like putting salt on your eggs.

You don't want too much everywhere.

That's weird and it ruins everything,

just a little bit.

All right, this is kind of fun, actually.

Let's try some more together.

For the sake of this lesson,

we're going to change all of them just so you can feel

how it sounds, so you understand when you hear.

Three Thursdays ago, I met my father.

Now, you say it.

Can't live with you, can't live without you.

Either that leather jacket goes, or I go.

Okay but also, sometimes we drop the 'th' altogether.

For example,

- All right, these two jackets are really old.

What do you want to do?

Do you want to throw them, keep them?

- Throw them.

So, she wants to know the action.

Remember sentence stress and intonation,

weak forms, this is kind of related to that.

We can drop the 'th' in some words,

like pretty much just the word them,

some other ones, too.

But anyway, after important verbs,

when we focus on the verb, then we can drop the 'th'

in them, like in this example.

- Or?

- Have them.

- Oh.

- Kiss them.

- Put them on eBay, sell them.

- Okay.

- Throw them, have them, sell them, kiss them.

Now in writing, you'll see this as 'em.

That just means they removed the 'th'.

In those examples, the verb is the focus, so it's okay

to drop the 'th' in them.

But, don't drop the 'th' in them

if the pronoun is the focus.

For example,

no, no, no, not them.

Throw them.

Now we're focusing on the pronoun, not the action

because we're contrasting two different things.

So, remember that.

Everything we've learned today and in previous lessons,

I want you to try to use them

with these three example sentences.

Remember, this course is about building

and developing your own unique British pronunciation style.

So, plan how you want to say them.

Try a few different ways if you want to.

I'll give you how I say it as an example.

So, the first one is my mother's a doctor,

my father's a lawyer.

Notice that the schwa is just everywhere.

My mother's a lawyer, my father is a doc.

Wait, no. What?

My mother's a doctor, my father's a lawyer.

But, the 'th' sounds in that sentence,

again, it's your choice.

Do you want to change them for Fs or no?

It's up to you.

The second one, thanks for the leather jacket.

I don't change the 'th' for Fs and Vs.

I keep them the same.

So for me, yeah, thanks for the leather jacket.

I do use the glottal T, though, leather jacket.

You don't have to.

Again, this is your style.

You choose how you want to say it.

Third one, how's your father?

How's your father?

There's a little bit of connected speech.

We'll talk about connected speech in a later video.

How's your, we could connect it how's your, how's your.

How's your father?

How's your father?

And remember, if you haven't already,

make sure you download my free e-book,

the "Ultimate Pronunciation Guide".

You can get it from my website, PapaTeachMe.com.

It's free.

This,

you can just get it, like, right now.

It's brilliant and it's free.

Go and get it.

And I'll see you in the next class.