The TH Sound in English - New and IMPROVED Lesson

hey everyone it's adar thank you so much for joining me today i'm going to share with you one of my most complete and thorough lessons about the th and yes i know it's funny that i use the word thorough to describe a th lesson anyway i love teaching the th sound first because it's easy to understand with the right explanation and practice and it's easy to implement and then it gets my students usually great results second because i know this is a sound that a lot of people struggle with and feel self-conscious about and even though it's not crucial for your clarity for the most part being self-conscious about a certain sound is not something that helps you sound clear and fluent because you're obsessing over things that are not helping you feel free and clear and confident so this is why i usually teach the th right at the start of my programs in fact this lesson is taken from my program new sound new sound is designed to help you reach a breakthrough in your english and it really covers all the elements that are required for you to transform how you think feel and use english most of it is based on pronunciation training because i believe that it's so important to understand the external part of english so you can free yourself up and feel clear and expressive so it's not in your way we go really deep into learning all the key sounds of american english and also we go really deep into understanding porosity which is intonation rhythm stress phrasing breathing tone of voice voice so all of these elements that make you a good communicator are important to learn and to understand and most importantly to practice effectively so as you will see we will share with you a lesson about the th it's a part of the entire lesson because we actually start with a self-assessment process so you'll know what you need to focus on because not everyone has the same needs and then we go into deeper practice and tackling challenges today i'm going to share with you the explanation of the th and a short practice which i have no doubt is going to help you significantly and you'll know how to keep on practicing it on your own if you need more help and you want to find out more about new sound i'm going to put a link in the description so you can check it out when we release this video doors are open for new sound so you can go check out the program and maybe you would consider joining us and if you're watching this when doors are closed then you can get on the list to be the first to know when we open doors alright that's it i'm not going to make you wait any longer so let's watch and practice the th lesson and i will see you on the other side welcome to the th sound the th sound is a sound that is created with the tip of the tongue as in think and vei a lot of students are very aware of the sound but at the same time they feel uncomfortable when using it or they feel that it's a little too much or fake or just strange because if you don't have the th sound in your native language then it's going to be strange to speak with the tongue out however if you practice it consistently and the way i'm going to show you in this program then i guarantee that very soon you'll be able to make it your own and feel comfortable and this sound is going to be effortless for you because the good thing about the th is that it's very clear how to pronounce it and how to use it so it's really all about the muscles and all about developing those new healthy speaking habits now when we talk about the pronunciation of the sounds we want to take into consideration three elements the first one is the manner of the sound then the placement and then the voicing so let's begin with a placement when pronouncing the th sound the tip of the tongue comes out and touches the top teeth this is where the air or voice are blocked and that's the place of articulation so it's the tip of the tongue and the teeth in a second we're going to talk about common challenges when pronouncing the th sound but the most important thing that you need to remember is that the tongue has to be out and there has to be contact between the tongue and teeth to pronounce the th sound think they when it comes to manner the th is a fricative that means that the sound is not blocked the air is not blocked but it's released gradually so it's restricted right think about it we release air but the air is restricted because of the contact of the tongue and teeth so you let it out slowly almost like blowing out a candle it is not a stop sound it's not stopped that would be a t or a d but it's released gradually this is why it's a little longer than a stop sound for example a d listen they day they i can stretch it forever day it's a lot shorter okay so that's the idea of a fricative and when it comes to voicing we have two different th's one is the voiceless th or some people call it the soft th where it's just air coming out between the tongue and teeth think versus a voice th as in vey where it's both air and sound the vocal cords are vibrating and if you put your hands here on your throat try it now let's release air just air and now add the vocal cords just sound did you feel the vibrations good so that is your voice and it actually changes the sound so we're not doing anything different here but it created a different sound think vey both are spelled with two letters t and h th but they have two different phonetic symbols this is the phonetic symbol of the voiceless th this is the phonetic symbol the ipa of the voice th now before we practice it in words let's talk about common challenges that you might face when pronouncing the sound so we've already agreed that it's going to be a little challenging for some people to stick the tongue out if that sound does not exist in their native language so you might be wanting to pull the tongue back as you're pronouncing the th think and you may think that the tongue is out but ultimately if it's inside then this is the sound that you're going to get pink did that sound like a th think taut right because i blocked the air it actually sounded more like a t sound than the th thought now that my tongue is out the sound is different listen again dot thought by the way i may even stick the tongue out and still get the same quality thought that's because i pressed my tongue against the teeth really strongly and i did not allow the air to pass so you need to remember two things if you don't hear that friction sound of the th that resembles an s or an f then your tongue is either inside right behind the teeth or outside but it's pressed so strongly against the teeth that the air is not coming out so make sure that the tongue is loose and relaxed and one more thing think of the body of the tongue and you want to make sure that it's down because sometimes people stick the tongue out and the body of the tongue is so high up that it's blocking the air inside and you have no idea why you're pronouncing a t or a d instead of a th d instead of they so it has to do with what's happening inside the mouth as well good now another common challenge is that when people are not aware of sticking the tongue out and you may want to create that friction sound and but you'll keep the tongue inside sink sink and then you're pronouncing an s sound instead of a th sound sink instead of thing so in that case you want to make sure that the tip of the tongue comes out and you can do that by putting your finger right here and you might want to feel the tongue touching the finger or you might want to use a mirror or your phone camera to see the tongue actually coming out think now if you're hearing the quality of the th and you're not seeing the tip of the tongue maybe you're using your bottom lip to pronounce the th as in vey instead of they or fink instead of think and in that case you might want to hold your bottom lip with your finger for a little bit making sure that it's not coming up and that the tongue is actually coming out instead they think right it's all a matter of controlling your tongue and articulation organs becoming more aware of what your mouth is actually doing and when you're in control then you're less likely to go back into old habits which is the pronunciation habits that you've developed like pronouncing an f or an s instead of a th so as you can see the th can be substituted with several sounds like a t or a d s or z z instead of vey or f or v it depends on your native language and your speaking habits but when you become aware of that and you understand what you tend to do it's a lot easier to change that and go into the right pronunciation now i want to remind you that it is possible for you to pronounce the th your tongue is not too short your teeth are not too wide it has nothing to do with the structure of your mouth you're able to pronounce the th if you find it challenging it's only because you're going back to old pronunciation habits and to what's comfortable and what's familiar because that's how you pronounce sounds in your native language okay so it's just a matter of gaining control over your tongue over your articulation organs becoming aware and being patient and doing it again and again and again and doing it slowly until you hear what you're looking for so now that you know how to pronounce the th let's move on to practicing it in words phrases minimal pairs and sentences okay so let's begin with words we're going to start with words with voiceless th as in think think stick the tongue out make sure the air passes think fangs and and prolong the sound do it with me thanks thank you thanks theory theory what a great theory theory it's only in theory stick the tongue out feel the air passing if you hear theory then you want to relax the tongue stick it out a bit more theory thousand thousand now that might be confusing with the z sound in the middle and yes it's a z sound even though it's spelled with an s thousand so if you feel that you're saying something like southend like switching the sounds so concentrate on the th first hold it out long ow sound foul and then bring the tongue in for the z sound zind zind thousand thousand let's review the words think thanks theory thousand again think thanks theory thousand very good now moving on to voice th feel the vibrations now you may see that it's spelled the same and you might be asking yourself how would i know if it's a voiceless or voiced th so wait with that thought i'll answer it in a little bit the the the car the people the the tongue comes out you hear the vibrations the now with this word in particular sometimes you can cheat and put the tongue on the back of the teeth when you hold it out you may even feel tickles here if you don't maybe the air is blocked somewhere so you want to see why the the car the people the chair this a voice an e sound and an s this this right we don't want to hear this or this this now having said that again if you pronounce it more like this sound this because it's a function word it's no big deal this this but for the sake of practice all right it's not about mastering it every time you speak english no it's just for the sake of practice to train your tongue to get to the right placement in all the words after that we'll learn where we can do all these shortcuts because this is not as important as father or at least the th and that in in these words these can you hear the difference between the two these we begin with a voice th but here we have a high e sound vs ending with a z sound this these these the this these the this these the this these the this these the this these now let's continue with phrases now this is where it gets interesting because this is an opportunity to see how we transition from the th to other sounds and vice versa let me think about it let me think about it so the let me we can reduce it to lemmy let me let me think about it let me think about it let's do this thing say it again let's do this thing what's the challenging part where do you get stuck probably the transition between the s and the teach right let's do this thing so make sure you bring the tongue in for the s and then you push it out for the th this thing right and you want to make sure that the tongue doesn't stop in the middle and stops the air as well this thing right no this thing make sure it's very smooth let's move into sentences they need to think about the earth more they need to think about the earth more notice that here the the is pronounced as the the earth the earth that's because there is a vowel right after when there is a vowel we want to say the word the with an e sound so it's easier to connect the earth the earth when it's a consonant then we reduce it the car the plane they need to think about the earth more one more time they need to think about the earth more now let's practice minimal pairs similar words that the only thing that is different is that one sound a th and another sound for example de vey so a lot of people might substitute the voice th with the d sound so we want to look into those pairs to again develop awareness and to remind the brain that these are two different sounds de vey let's do it again day they and when you practice minimal pairs make sure to always say the words first and then the sentence they had a great day today they had a great day today sink think sink think i think the ship is about to sink i think the ship is about to sink i think the ship is about to sink okay that's it for now massage your jaw a little bit do a lip trill [Music] take a deep breath in breathe out you did a fantastic job all right that's it i hope you enjoyed it and i hope it was helpful helped you understand how to simplify the th sound if you want to find out more about new sound and all the lessons that we teach there and how you can transform your english using my pronunciation confidence method and all the lessons about pronunciation i invite you to click the link in the description if doors are closed get on the list to be the first to know when we open doors just so you know the program is not just the videos we also offer a lot of coaching so you get to work with me and with our coaches and you can even get feedback on your pronunciation videos so there's a lot that goes into it a lot of speaking practice and practice groups and sprints so it's a lot of fun you should check it out anyway i hope you'll have some time to put it into practice remember practice makes better so take what you've learned and maybe make a list of all the th words that you often use and just practice it every day for three minutes that's it i guarantee that you are going to feel the difference all right take care thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next week in the next video

Channel: Accent's Way English with Hadar

Views: 22,933

Keywords: hadar shemesh, english pronunciation, th sound, american english pronunciation, th sound pronunciation, th sound phonics, th sound words, th sound american accent, pronunciation, pronunciation english, american english course, complete american english course, learn american english course, american english speaking course, learn american english speaking full course, american english pronunciation course, american english language speaking course

Id: CYWV4tu9rrQ

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021