How to pronounce the TH sounds in English Perfect English Pronunciation
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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
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much for watching this lesson and I will
see you again soon bye bye
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