English How to Pronounce TH Consonants American Accent
The two TH consonant sounds. These sounds
are paired together because they take the
same mouth position. Th is unvoiced, meaning,
only air passes through the mouth, and th
is voiced, meaning you make a sound with the
vocal cords. To make this sound, the very
tip of the tongue comes through the teeth,
th, th, thanks, th, th, this. The rest of
the mouth remains relaxed. For the THR consonant
cluster, the lips will begin to move into
position for the R while the TH is being made.
Three, three. In some cases, these sounds
will be replaced with a similar sound, when
the tongue does not quite come through the
teeth. Instead it presses against the closed
teeth. This will happen in an unstressed word
only, when there isn’t enough time given to
the word for teeth to part and the tongue
to come through. For example, ‘What’s in the
car?’ What’s in the car? The tongue isn’t
coming all the way through the teeth. Here
we see the TH sound on the right compared
with the mouth at rest on the left. And with
parts of the mouth drawn in. The soft palate
is raised for this sound. You can see the
tongue through the teeth, just the tip comes
through. The TH consonant sounds. Sample words:
thin/this, thief/these, birthday/worthy. Sample
sentence: I thought of using these Lily of
the Valleys rather than those thorny roses.
Now you will see this sentence up close and
in slow motion, both straight on and from
an angle, so you can really study how the
mouth moves when making these sounds. I, with
the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong. Thought, tongue
tip through the teeth, TH, thought. ‘Aw’ as in ‘law’,
tongue up to make the T which is a D here,
thought of. Using, the ‘ew’ as in ‘few’ diphthong.
These, tongue tip through the teeth. Lily
of the Valleys, tongue up in the L position,
comes down, ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’, back up for
the second L, lily, of, bottom lip up for
the V sound, and again for the V sound of
Valleys. Tongue up for the L, that was an
L, not a TH. Rather, lips take the R consonant
shape, and the tongue comes through the teeth
again for the TH, one more time quickly for
than. Those, ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ diphthong, and
again for thorny, thorny roses, R consonant
shape, ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ diphthong. Teeth together
for the Z sound, then part slightly for the
schwa, and together again for the final
Z sound. And now from an angle. I thought,
tongue tip through the teeth, tongue up to
make the D sound, bottom lip up for the V.
Using, with the ‘ew’ as in ‘few’ diphthong.
These, tongue tip through the teeth.
Teeth together for the Z sound and tongue
up to make the L. Lily, up again for the second
L. Lily of, bottom lip up for the V. And you
don’t even seen the tongue for the TH there
because it’s so quick. Of the Valley, Valleys.
Rather, mouth takes the R consonant shape
and the tongue tip comes through for the TH.
Rather. The tongue tip comes through quickly to
make than and those, than is very short there.
‘Oh’ as in ‘no’, teeth together for the Z
sound. Thorny, tongue through the teeth for
the TH, tongue up to make the N, roses. R
consonant shape, teeth together for the Z
sound, part for the schwa, and together again
for the Z sound. That’s it, and thanks so
much for using Rachel’s English.