How to Pronounce the Word THEM American English

Where did you get those flowers?
I got them at the farmer’s market.

Did you notice how I pronounced the word ‘them’?
I dropped the TH entirely. ‘Em, ‘em. This

is great news for people who have a hard time
with the TH. In this American English pronunciation

video, I’m going to go over the pronunciation
of the word ‘them’ in conversation.

There are lots of words in American English
that will sound different when they’re part

of a sentence than they do on their own. ‘Them’
is one of these words. The word ‘them’ on

its own is pronounced with the voiced TH,
th, th, tongue tip just through the teeth,

the-, the ‘eh’ as in ‘bed’ vowel. So the jaw
will have to drop quite a bit for that: the-

the-. And finally, the M consonant. Them,
mm, mm, mm. Lips come together to make that

sound. Them. But, as part of a sentence, the
vowel will reduce to the schwa. Them, them.

All of a sudden, the word is very short, them,
and very flat—them, them—compared to before:

them, them. But, it can reduce even further.
We can drop the TH and have just ‘em, ‘em,

‘em. The schwa and the M sound. As always,
when you reduce a word, you have to link it

to the words around, so let’s look at some
example sentences.

I’ll take them with me. Take ‘em, take ‘em.
So, the K sound is linking right up to that

schwa. Take ‘em, take ‘em. I’ll take them
with me. I’ll get them later. Get ‘em, get

‘em. Do you notice that the T here is not
a true T? It’s a flap T. Why? Because when

we connect the schwa-M sound, the T now comes
between two vowels. Get ‘em, get ‘em. I’ll

get ‘em later. I gave them to you last night.
Gave ‘em, gave ‘em, gave ‘em. Again, no break

between the V and the schwa. Gave ‘em. I gave
them to you last night. You can have them.

Have ‘em, have ‘em, have ‘em. You can have
them. We can buy them later. Buy ‘em, buy

‘em, buy ‘em. We can buy them later.

Reducing a word and linking it to the words
around is a great opportunity to smooth out

your speech and sound more American. So don’t
be afraid to pronounce ‘them’ this way. That’s

it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.

Don’t stop there. Have fun with my real-life
English videos. Or get more comfortable with

the IPA in this play list. Learn about the
online courses I offer, or check out my latest

video.

你从哪儿弄来的那些花？
我在农贸市场买的。

你注意到我如何发音“他们”这个词了吗？
我完全放弃了 TH。 ‘他们，‘他们。

对于那些在 TH 上遇到困难的人来说，这是个好消息
。 在这个美式英语发音

视频中，我将
回顾对话中“他们”这个词的发音。

美式英语中有很多单词，
当它们作为句子的一部分时，它们的发音会与它们本身的发音不同

。 “他们”
就是其中之一。 “them”这个词

本身的发音是浊音 TH,
th, th, 舌尖刚好穿过牙齿,

the-, ‘eh’ 就像在 ‘bed’ 元音中一样。 因此，下巴
将不得不为此下降很多：the-

the-。 最后是M辅音。 他们，
毫米，毫米，毫米。 嘴唇凑到一起发出那个

声音。 他们。 但是，作为句子的一部分，
元音将减少为 schwa。 他们，他们。

突然之间，他们这个词很短
，很平——他们，他们——和之前相比：

他们，他们。 但是，它可以进一步减少。
我们可以放弃 TH，只吃 ‘em，‘em，

‘em。 schwa 和 M 的声音。 和往常一样，
当你减少一个单词时，你必须将它

与周围的单词联系起来，所以让我们看一些
例句。

我会带上他们的。 拿走，拿走。
所以，K 音直接与那个

schwa 相连。 拿走，拿走。 我会带上他们
的。 我稍后会得到它们。 得到他们，

得到他们。 你注意到这里的 T
不是真正的 T 吗？ 这是一个襟翼T。为什么？ 因为当

我们连接 schwa-M 音时，T 现在出现
在两个元音之间。 得到他们，得到他们。 我稍后会

得到它们。 我昨晚把它们给了你。
给他们，给他们，给他们。 同样，

V 和 schwa 之间没有中断。 给他们。 我
昨晚把它们给了你。 你可以拥有它们。

拥有他们，拥有他们，拥有他们。 你可以拥有
它们。 我们可以稍后再购买。 买他们，

买他们，买他们。 我们可以稍后再购买。

减少一个词并将其与周围的词联系
起来是一个很好的机会，可以

让你的演讲变得更流畅，听起来更美国化。 所以不要
害怕这样发音“他们”。 就是

这样，非常感谢您使用 Rachel 的
英语。

不要停在那里。 享受我的真实
英语视频。 或者更熟悉

这个播放列表中的 IPA。 了解
我提供的在线课程，或查看我的最新

视频。