Learn English About How to Pronounce TH | American English Pronunciation

Sink think

Zi

Zi the

Way we pronounce th has a big impact on how well we are understood

Today, let's take a closer. Look at how to produce the 2 th sounds

Welcome back to the English DNA channel everyone. I'm teacher Sarah

today we're going to learn how to make the 2 th sounds the unvoiced th

And

the voiced th

First let's consider the terms voiced and unvoiced

What does it mean to use your voice?

Take your hand and place it on your throat like this

Now say the letter S

You'll notice that there is no vibration in your vocal chords now

Let's put our hands on our throats again and say the letter Z

You can't feel the vibration in your throat when you say this letter

S is an unvoiced sound because we do not use our vocal chords to produce it

Whereas Z is a voiced sound

Because we do use our vocal cords to make it

Let's feel that again

first let's try the letter s

No feeling now see

Did you feel bad that's a voiced sound

Now let's talk about the 2 th sounds

These are very difficult sounds for many English learners

Let's take a look at how to produce these sounds let's start with the unvoiced th sound

Place your tongue between your teeth like this

Now push air through your teeth

This is an unvoiced th we use this in words like sink

thin and think

Now let's try the voiced th sound again place your tongue between your teeth

This time we are going to use our vocal cords just like we do when we say the letter Z

Ok, let's try put your hand on your throat to make sure you can feel the vibration

Now put your tongue between your teeth and push air through

while using your vocal cords

Good job we can use this sound in words like this

that these and those

You may be wondering why is this important

Many English speakers

substitute the correct th sounds for the letters s and z

instead of think they might say

sync

Instead of that they may say that

The problem here is that changing one sound may change the meaning of the words

here is a picture that represents the word sync and

here's a picture that represents the word sync as

You can see these words represent two very different concepts

Be sure to practice this sound and try to listen to yourself as you speak

it can be helpful to record your speaking and listen back and

Remember the key to making this sound is having your tongue between your teeth like this

Hmm

language tip

Though it can be hard to tell which th sound to use when reading. There are a couple helpful rules

First if the th comes at the end of the word it is unvoiced

We can see this in words like bath depth and both

When the th comes in the middle of the word it is voiced

We can see this in words like mother father bathe and father

Okay students, that's it for today's pronunciation lesson

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