How to pronounce the TH sounds in English Perfect English Pronunciation

wanna speak real English from your first

lesson sign up for your free lifetime

account at English class 101.com

hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about

pronunciation I’m going to focus on

beginning th sounds let’s get started

okay beginning th sounds are broken into

two categories there are voiced th

sounds and unvoiced th sounds let’s

start with the voiced th sounds so a

voiced sound means we use our vocal

chords to make the sound so one big tip

for today’s lesson especially is over

here about voiced and unvoiced sounds if

you’re not sure about the difference

between a voiced sound and an unvoiced

sound you can practice by touching your

throat right here when you make the

sound

so for voiced sounds if you touch your

throat when you make the sound and you

hear or you feel a vibration that means

the sound is voiced so you’re using your

vocal chords to make the sound so

vibration means it’s a voiced sound if

you touch your throat when you make the

sound and there’s no vibration that

means it’s an unvoiced sound so this is

a quick way to test if you’re making a

voiced sound or an unvoiced sound so you

can use this for today’s lesson so I

want to begin as I said with voiced th

sounds so to make the voiced th sound

you can practice by putting the tip of

your tongue that means like the top of

your tongue or not the top of your

tongue but like the part of your tongue

that’s like right here that’s right

there put that against the back of your

upper teeth so your upper teeth put that

the tip of your tongue that part of the

tongue I just pointed to put that

against so if this is your tongue and

this is your teeth put that against your

teeth to make that first position then

when you release that position

make the vowel sound that follows the

word so it’s not just making the th

sound but because this is a voiced sound

we’re making this sound together with

like another vowel sound so when we

release our tongue from this position we

continue on in our mouth to making the

vowel sound next so some great examples

to practice with our words like these

this that these those the and there so

you’ll notice as well that the words

that are voiced th sounds are the words

that use voiced th sounds are kind of

like these grammar words they’re really

closely linked to the grammar of the

sentence it’s not like the nouns or like

the verbs in a sentence but it’s like

those small words

so again when we make these sounds this

this so the beginning position my tongue

is against my teeth and I pair that as

I’m moving away from the back of my

teeth with my tongue I go to the vowel

sound

this-this-this I change the vowel sound

and I change my mouth position that that

so when I say I change my mouth position

I mean I change the position that I

moved to so this position I always begin

from this position the I always start

there but then I change the position of

my mouth to make the next vowel sound so

this that so my mouth is kind of wide to

make the LAT sound these bees so it’s

like I’m smiling when I’m making this

sound so my tongue begins against my

teeth and then I moved to an e sound

bees I make the sound when I release my

tongue from that position bees when I

make the O sound those those this is a

case where you might notice the tip of

your tongue comes between your teeth Oh

bitte that’s okay those those that’s

totally natural so my mouth is making an

O shape those those but basically the

top of my tongue still begins against my

upper teeth I make an O sound so I

release my tongue from that position

those and I make an O sound to follow it

with this one the the this is another

case where the tip of your tongue might

move between your teeth a little bit

that’s okay duh duh duh another one

there there there so another example

where the tip of your tongue might move

a little more between your teeth to make

this sound so these are all voiced

sounds so to test again you can touch

your throat when you make this sound so

this my throat vibrates that these those

the there so these should all make a

vibrating or a vibration rather in your

throat when you make the sound so these

are voiced th sounds beginning sounds

with th that are voiced I want to

compare this then to unvoiced sounds so

again as I said an unvoiced sound or you

might know a voiceless sound is a sound

in which no vocal chords are used to

make the sound so if we touch our throat

when we make the sound we won’t feel any

vibration that’s correct so to practice

making an unvoiced sound you can begin

by practicing this very slowly so you

can put the tip of your tongue between

your teeth to make this sound so that’s

the beginning position that you can

slowly practice so that means between

your top teeth and your bottom teeth put

the tip of your tongue between those

that’s the starting position so some

examples a great example we can begin

with is think think so you might think

why is this an unvoiced sound I hear a

vowel sound when I touch my throat and

say think my throat vibrates

that’s true but we’re focusing on the th

sound only so make the th sound and

think there’s no voice like there’s no

vibration in your vocal cords the I

sound in think is voiced

yes but the th sound is not voiced so

it’s a sound it’s just the feeling like

you have the feeling of air passing

through your mouth there’s no vibration

in your vocal cords so this is the

correct way to make an unvoiced th sound

so let’s try this with another word we

practiced a little bit with think think

another example thanks thanks so this is

a word I often hear students make an SS

ound instead like Sanks not correct so

make sure you use your tongue thanks

thanks to make this out another one

thought thought so again begins with no

sound so thought thought I open up into

the next vowel sound thought another one

Thunder Thunder so here I’m making a u

sound after my unvoiced th thunder

thunder another one phi phi so you can

hear as i did with all of these i’m like

making the next vowel sound so my mouth

is already moving to the next vowel

sound as I’m making my th sound so

they’re very closely connected if you’d

like to practice slowly by may be

breaking down the sounds like ink it’s

okay but try to put them together so ink

maybe X aught that’s how we could

perhaps break down these but try to put

them together practice making the sounds

together to make your speech sound more

natural let’s look at some more examples

3 3 3

so here maybe is a little tricky point

this R sound that comes after the T

three three so you can kind of imagine

there’s another a here three so that’s

the position we don’t say an e but

that’s sort of the position of the mouth

to make that R sound after the th three

three so I’m kind of dropping my jaw a

little bit to make the earth sound three

three another example 13 13 13 so when I

make this sound there’s a little gap

here right here 13 13 so again the th is

unvoiced 13 so my voice does not begin

until the I sound here there’s a little

gap 13 okay one more

thud thud ugh so again th makes no sound

my my vowel sound is a voiced sound thud

thud so these are a few words that you

can use to practice making these voiced

and unvoiced sounds so you can begin by

practicing words like these individually

by themselves then you can begin making

sentences and trying tongue twisters

that use these sounds - so practice

these words together in sentences as

well so don’t focus just on like one

word you can of course put them together

and try to say them quickly like this

that these those there you can try to

say it quickly like that or for unvoiced

sounds think thanks thought

thunder-thighs

313 thud if you want to practice making

those sounds quickly so you can kind of

build your own tongue twisters in this

way if you want but this is a basic

introduction to voiced and unvoiced th

sounds especially at the beginning of

words that was the focus for today’s

lesson so if you have any questions or

comments or if there’s something else

that you’d like to see on the channel

please feel free to leave us a comment

below of course if you know a good

tongue twister that uses these sounds

please share that with us as well

if you enjoyed the video please don’t

forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe

to our channel if you have not already

and check us out at English class

101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye bye

[Music]