How to Link the TH Sound American English Pronunciation
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to talk about linking and the
TH sound. I’ve been getting a lot of questions
about this recently. Understandable, since
the TH sound is in some very common words,
and linking is such an important concept in
American English.
Of course, I can’t go over every combination
of linking with the TH. But in this video,
we’re going to take 10 examples. We’ll watch
them in slow motion, and we’ll discuss what
the mouth is doing to link the sounds. Let’s
get started.
This thing.
Here we’re linking the S with the TH. Here
the tongue comes through for the first TH
sound, tongue tip stays just behind the bottom
teeth as they come together for the S, and
the tongue comes through again for the TH.
So the movement from the S to the TH is quite
simple. Teeth go from being closed, with the
tongue just behind the bottom teeth to parting
with the tongue coming through. Let’s watch
again. This thing.
Here we’re linking the Z with the voiced TH.
Was that.
Even though the sounds are different than
the previous example, the mouth position is
the same for both sounds. However, in this
case there’s going to be a difference. Teeth
close for the Z sound, but the tongue tip
doesn’t really come through the teeth for
the TH. That’s because you can get away with
making the voiced TH sound, especially at
the beginning of an unstressed syllable, by
pressing the tongue behind the closed teeth.
So, the tongue tip will press behind where
the teeth come together, but not actually
come all the way through like it does for
the unvoiced TH. Let’s watch again.
Was that.
Here I’m linking a stop T with the voiced
TH. Something interesting happens here.
Sit there.
Rather than the tongue going up into the stop
T position, it simply comes out of the vowel,
straight into the TH position. However, I
don’t leave the stop T out. I still stop the
sound before voicing the TH – sit there,
sit there – so that we get the feel for the
stop T. But rather than taking the tongue
tip to the roof of the mouth, I make the stop
while bringing the tongue tip through the
teeth. Let’s watch again.
Sit there.
Here we’re linking the V sound with the voiced
TH. It’s quite straightforward. You will
clearly see both mouth positions.
Of these.
The bottom lip comes up making contact with
the top teeth for the V sound, then the lip
pulls down and the tongue comes through the
teeth for the TH sound. Let’s watch again.
Of these.
Here we’re linking the P with the voiced TH.
Again, it’s quite straightforward. You’ll
clearly see the mouth position of both sounds.
Hope the.
The lips come together to make the P, and
as they part, the tongue tip comes through
the teeth to make the TH. Watch again.
Hope the.
Here we’re linking the unvoiced TH with the
ST consonant cluster.
North star.
The tongue comes through the teeth, to make
the TH. Then the tongue tip pulls back and
touches just behind the bottom of the front
teeth while the teeth close to make the S sound.
Then the tongue tip will go up to the roof
of the mouth to make the T. Let’s watch again.
North star.
Here we’re connecting the unvoiced TH with
the F consonant. You’ll be able to clearly
see both mouth positions.
With funny.
Tongue comes through the teeth for the TH,
and the bottom lip raises to touch the bottom
of the front top teeth for the F sound. Watch
again.
With funny.
Here we’re connecting the unvoiced TH with
the W consonant sound.
Both will.
Tongue comes through the teeth for the TH,
then pulls back and the lips form the tight
circle for the W while the tongue tip is just
behind the bottom front teeth. Watch again.
Both will.
Here we’ll see the unvoiced TH linking to
the K consonant sound.
Health code.
Tongue tip comes through the teeth for the
TH. For the K, the tongue tip comes back in
the mouth and goes down, touching behind the
bottom front teeth. The back part of the tongue
raises and touches the soft palate, which
is why you see a dark space in the mouth.
Watch again.
Health code.
Here we’ll see the unvoiced TH linking with
the S sound.
South side.
Tongue tip comes through the teeth for the
TH. Then the tongue tip comes back into the
mouth and lightly touches behind the bottom
front teeth while the teeth close to make
the S sound. Watch again.
South side.
I hope this study in linking words with the
TH will make it easy for you to link any word
with the TH that you may come across. Practice
word pairs like the 10 here, or other word
pairs, and do them slowly. And practice them
over and over. Repetition really will help
you become more comfortable linking with the
TH sound.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.
I’d like to take moment for a quick plug for
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