How to Pronounce the TH Sound in English

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What's up guys?

I'm Chad, welcome to another episode of Real Life TV and today I'm going to teach you guys

all about how to pronounce the TH sound in English.

Is this Real Life?

So, have you guys ever had difficulty to pronounce the TH sound in English?

Don't worry, you're just like every other English learner out there.

So, the first thing you have to know about the pronunciation of the TH sound in English

is that there is actually two ways to pronounce this.

That's right.

We have what we call voiced and unvoiced.

So, the difference here is that when I use the voiced TH sound in English I have this

vibrating sound in my mouth.

For example: th, th.

So, the way you pronounce this, is you put your tongue between your teeth and you make

a th sound.

So, the voiced TH sound you're going to hear a lot in words like the, them, these.

So I'm just gonna...

Repeat after me as I say this.

The, that, them.

Can you hear that vibration?

That is the voiced TH sound.

Sometimes you're going to hear this in the middle of a word.

For example, a word like although.

Although, although.

Another word is another.

Another, can you say that?

Another.

So, just another way to make sure you're pronouncing the voiced TH sound correctly is when you're

saying this, if you just touch your throat, you can feel the vibration.

When I say a word like "the", or "them", I can really feel my throat vibrate with the

pronunciation.

Ok, so now let's move into how to pronounce the unvoiced TH sound in English.

A good example of this is the number three.

That's right, three.

It's a very subtle sound in comparison to the voiced.

So, many people say the word "three" as "tree" or "free", but these are totally different

words.

So, to pronounce the unvoiced TH sound it's a similar principle, you put your tongue between

your teeth, but you blow air out - th, th, th.

There's no vibrating in my throat when I pronounce this.

Ok?

So just practice it a couple of times: th, th, th.

And let's go through some words, so, again, just repeat after me.

Three, thanks, thanks, thirty, or, American D, thirty.

Ok.

Sometimes you will hear the unvoiced TH at the end of a word.

Words like mouth, mouth, both, both.

Can you hear the difference there?

So let's just compare the two TH sounds really quickly, we have voiced - th, th - and then

unvoiced - th, th.

So, one thing you guys are going to notice is that generally the voiced TH sound, the

th sound is when it's in the start it's often used with function words, these words like

the, them, this, although, for example.

Another time you're going to hear a lot of voiced TH sounds is when they are between

two vowels, like I mentioned before the word mother, bother.

They're generally between two vowel sounds.

It's a rule, there's always exceptions, but if you use this to kind of guide you, it's

a good start, just hearing the difference between the voiced and unvoiced TH sounds.

Ok guys, that does it for today's episode of Real Life TV, we hope it really helped

you.

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and if you didn't understand everything I was saying, just click on the link below and

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lesson, ok?

Thanks a lot for being here today, and we hope to see you and hear from you guys in

the future.