'TH': Consonant Sound / θ / as in 'think'- American English Pronunciation

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Learn how to pronounce the consonant sound /θ/ used in words like "theater," "south," or "bathroom."
Improve your American accent with two phonetic exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.
Practice pronunciation of the /θ/ consonant sound in commonly used words.
Check if you can find a surprise bonus at the end of the video!

Quick links:
• Consonant sound /θ/, as in "think:" 00:00
• How to make the /θ/ sound: 01:06
• Most common mistakes with the /θ/ sound: 02:05
• Pronunciation exercise 1: 03:26
• Pronunciation exercise 2: 05:24
• Most common spelling for the /θ/ sound: 06:33

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #FricativeSounds
► Consonant Sound /f/ as in "fun"
► Consonant Sound /v/ as in "very"
► Consonant Sound /s/ as in "sun"
► Consonant Sound /z/ as in "zoo"
► Consonant Sound /ʃ/ as in "show"
► Consonant Sound /ʒ/ as in "vision"
► Consonant Sound /θ/ as in "think" - this video
► Consonant Sound /ð/ as in "this"
► Consonant Sound /h/ as in "home"

[ THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, KOREAN, PORTUGUESE, AND RUSSIAN SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we're going to talk about the American consonant sound /θ/, as in the word "think." You can also hear this sound in words like "thank," "bath," "author" or "three."
We'll be using a special phonetic symbol - /θ/ - for this sound.

The English /θ/ sound occurs in very few world languages, so it's unfamiliar to the majority of non-native speakers. Many non-native speakers often distort it or replace it with more familiar sounds, such as /s/, /t/, or /f/.

Fortunately, this sound is not that hard to make. Once you learn how to do it, it's just a matter of practice.

So, let's find out how to make the /θ/ sound.

This sound is all about the tip of your tongue.

Slightly open your mouth and put the tip of your tongue between your front teeth.

Note that the tip of your tongue may gently touch the bottom of your upper front teeth.
Now blow air over your tongue making noise with friction. The stream of air should flow between your upper teeth and your tongue.
Note that the /θ/ is a voiceless fricative sound.
This means that it's made from friction in the stream of air, but not with your voice.
Let's try saying it: /θ/, /θ/, /θ/.
Here are a few typical mistakes that people make when pronouncing the /θ/ sound:
1. Keeping the mouth closed or "biting" the bottom lip. The /θ/ gets distorted and sounds more like the /f/.
- Make sure your mouth is slightly open and that your upper teeth don't touch your lower lip.
2. Not pushing the tongue forward enough or pressing the tongue against the upper front teeth. This way you'll make a sound in between the /s/, /z/, and the /θ/.
- Put the tip of your tongue between your upper and bottom front teeth.
3. Stopping the airflow with the tip of the tongue. The /θ/ sound gets distorted and sounds more like /t/ or /d/.
- /θ/ is a continuous sound; so keep the airstream flowing. You should be able to stretch the /θ/ out: /θ-θ-θ- θ/.

Now, let's practice the /θ/ sound in some words.
You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. Like this. You'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. To achieve the best results, repeat each word after the speaker and try to practice as many words as possible.
Let's begin.

[Pronunciation exercise]
• birth
• both
• cloth
• death
• depth
• earth
• faith
• fifth
• forth
• math
• moth
• mouth
• ninth
• north
• teeth

[Pronunciation exercise]
• tenth
• thank
• theft
• theme
• thick
• thief
• thin
• thing
• think
• third
• thorn
• three
• threw
• throw

Did you know that the combination of the letters "th" may actually represent two sounds:
the voiceless consonant sound /θ/, as in the word "think,"
and the voiced consonant sound /ð/, as in the word "this"?

Here's how you can check which sound to use:

"th" sounds as /θ/ at the beginning or at the end of the stem of content words. For example, "theater," or "health."
"th" sounds as /ð/ at the beginning of function words. For example, "this." Or between vowels in content words, for example, "breathe."

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3:37 - bath
3:54 - birth
3:58 - both
4:03 - cloth
4:07 - death
4:11 - depth
4:16 - earth
4:20 - faith
4:24 - fifth
4:28 - forth
4:33 - math
4:37 - month
4:42 mouth
4:47 - ninth
4:51 - north
4:56 - teeth

Dina-

Hello fellow American Accent Learners!
Let’s add some fun to our learning process. What would you say about a little contest on the Sounds American channel?

*WORDS HUNTING CONTEST*

We’re looking for English words where the digraph “th” sounds in a different/unusual way. So, we're asking you to find and post such words in the comments for this video. The person who posts the most words wins!

CONTEST RULES:

As you probably know, in English the digraph “th” represents in most cases one of two phonemes: the voiceless fricative sound /θ/ (as in “think”) or voiced fricative /ð/ (as in ‘this’). The voiceless /θ/ is discussed in this very video, and we’re going to publish a video about the voiced /ð/ sound next week.
For this contest, we’re looking for words where “th” *does NOT sound as /θ/ or /ð/*.

TIPS:
• Most often, these are compound words, such as “penthouse”.
• Another case is words that come from other languages (loan words) or proper nouns, for example “Thailand”.
• Finally, there are some English words where the “th” digraph has a specific American pronunciation. For example, “clothes” /kloʊz/. Compare to the British pronunciation /kləʊðz/.

Any word where “th” *does NOT sound as /θ/ or /ð/*, including words that fall in one of the categories above, will be considered a valid contest entry. Please post words you find in the comments for this video *before noon December, 15 (Pacific Time)*. One word = one comment, please.

The winner will be proudly mentioned in one of our future videos!

SoundsAmerican

They should this more in non-native English classes! Growing up, even the teachers replaced it with a more familiar sound and didn't mind. Anyway, never too late to learn :) Priceless video.

christchaik

I'm an Argentinean teacher of English and your videos proved to be wonderfully useful to teach my Ph biology students. Thanks a lot for sharing

noraraquelfrizza

We’re happy to announce *the winner of this WORDS HUNTING CONTEST!*
*Hendra Polover* submitted the largest number of words in which digraph “th” doesn’t sound as either voiced /ð/ or voiceless /θ/.
Hendra, we will mention you in one of our next videos! Thank you for your participation!

SoundsAmerican

0:30 This sound is also used in Icelandic, European Spanish, Albanian, and Greek.

israelvelasco

I thought I knew everything about these sounds and now I learnt that you can determine when to use which one. I had accepted that there was no way to know and had to memorize. Wonderful videos, these are excellent resources to learn english. Very nice. Thanks A LOT !!!

apolina

These videos are amazing. I feel like I found what I was missing. English teachers in my country don't usually explain this to their students. A lot of them don't even worry about pronunciation. Thank you so much, you don't know how this helps us!

marquitomd