Practice Your English Pronunciation /s/ vs Th /θ/ Sounds | Course #18

Hello, guys.

My name is F@nny.

Welcome to this English pronunciation video.

In this video,

we are going to talk about two very important

English consonant sounds.

The sound /s/ and the sound /θ/.

So the /s/ sound and the th sound.

They are very confusing because they sound very similar

but they are different.

And they are very important in English

so I want you to be able to pronounce them correctly.

Let's take two example words.

The first word is the word ‘sink’

with an /s/ sound/ ‘sink’

The other word is ‘think’ with a th /θ/ sound.

So ‘sink’ and ‘think’.

They are two very different sounds in English.

And I really want you to be able to pronounce them correctly.

So let's practice together

and I promise you by the end of this video

you will hear the difference.

Let's get started.

Before we learn about the consonant sounds

s /s/ and th /θ/ in English,

you should know guys about the I.P.A. spelling

- that's very useful.

You can also watch me and how I move my mouth

and obviously please try to repeat after me.

You can make those sounds

and we're going to do it now.

Okay, guys. Let's now learn how to produce the /s/ sound.

So /s/ It's a voiceless sound.

You're not going to use your voice.

You're not going to feel the vibration in your throat.

What you're going to do is...

your teeth are going to touch each other.

And your tongue goes down.

It touches your lower teeth, okay.

And you're going to push out some air.

So… /s/

Please watch my mouth,

repeat after me.

/s/

/s/

/s/

Let's practice with the word ‘sink’.

Please repeat after me.

‘sink’

‘sink’

‘sink’

And now, let's make the th /θ/ sound in English.

So /θ/.

It's voiceless.

Again, no vibration.

No voice.

And what you're going to do is

you're going to put your tongue between your teeth...

okay and you're going to push out some air, okay.

/θ/

Repeat after me.

/θ/

/θ/

/θ/

Let's practice with the word ‘think’.

Please repeat after me.

‘think’

‘think’

‘think’

Good.

Let's now practice with minimal pairs -

words that are practically the same

but the sounds are different.

They are very good if you want to hear

the difference between the two sounds.

First, let's focus on the sounds themselves.

Please watch my mouth and repeat after me.

First the /s/ sound.

/s/

/s/

/s/

And now the th /θ/ sound.

/θ/

/θ/

/θ/

Now let's do both.

Please repeat after me.

/s/

/θ/

/s/

/θ/

/s/

/θ/

And now let's practice with our words.

Please repeat after me.

‘sink’

‘think’

‘sink’

‘think’

‘sink’

‘think’

Very good, guys.

Let's now go through minimal pairs together.

And I want you to look at how I move my mouth

and of course to repeat after me.

Let's get started.

face

faith

force

fourth

gross

growth

mass

math

miss

myth

moss

moth

mouse

mouth

Norse

North

pass

path

purse

Perth

race

wraith

sank

thank

saw

thaw

seem

theme

sick

thick

sigh

thigh

sin

thin

sing

thing

sink

think

some

thumb

song

thong

sought

thought

suds

thuds

symbol

thimble

tense

tenth

truce

truth

use

youth

worse

worth

Very good, guys.

Let's now practice with a few sentences

containing our consonant sounds.

Our first sentence is:

‘The Norse passed the North path.’

Please repeat after me.

‘The Norse passed the North path.’

Good.

Second sentence: ‘The sick mouse had a thick mouth.’

Please repeat after me.

‘The sick mouse had a thick mouth.’

And finally: ‘Use thick suds to keep your youth.’

Please repeat after me.

‘Use thick suds to keep your youth.’

Excellent, guys.

Let's move on.

Let's now move on to listening practice.

I'm now going to show you two words.

I will say one of the two words,

and I want you to listen very carefully

and to tell me if this word is, ‘a)’ or ‘b)’

Let's get started.

Here are my first two words now.

Now - word ‘a’, word ‘b’.

Which one do I say?

Listen to me.

‘thin’

One more time.

‘thin’

Is it ‘a’ or is it ‘b’?

It's ‘b’ guys, ‘thin’.

‘a’ is pronounced ‘sin’.

What about this one?

Listen to me very carefully.

‘worse’

‘worse’

It's ‘a’ guys, ‘worse’.

‘b’ would be ‘worth’.

‘faith’

‘faith’

It's ‘b’, ‘faith’.

‘a’ would be ‘face’.

Listen to me.

‘sank’

‘sank’

It's ‘a’, ‘sank.

‘b’ would be ‘thank’.

‘fourth’

‘fourth’

It's ‘b’, ‘fourth’.

‘a’ is ‘force’.

‘tenth’

‘tenth’

Answer ‘b’ of course.

‘a’ would be ‘tense’.

‘sink’

‘sink’

It's ‘a’, ‘sink’.

‘b’ is ‘think’.

Listen to me.

‘gross’

‘gross’

Is it ‘a’ or is it ‘b’?

It's ‘a’, ‘gross’.

‘b’ will be ‘growth’.

‘truth’

‘truth’

It's ‘b’, truth.

‘a’ is ‘truce’.

Our last two words.

Now listen to me very carefully.

‘mass’

‘mass’

Is it ‘a’ or is it ‘b’?

It's ‘a’, ‘mass’.

‘b’ would be ‘math’.

Excellent job, guys.

You now have a better understanding of the sounds

/s/ and θ/.

So the /s/ sound and th sound in English.

But of course keep practicing.

It takes a lot of practice to master these sounds but you can do it.

So practice makes perfect.

Keep practicing.

Train your ear to hear the different sounds.

And obviously watch my other pronunciation videos.

I promise you they will help you improve your skills.

See you next time.