تلفظ Th و محاوره ی پیوسته

Advanced TH pronunciation + Connected Speech!

Huhو how can you make your pronunciation of the TH sounds perfect, while also improving your British English pronunciation? By watching this lesson.

First of all, the mouth shape, how should your mouth be, when you pronounce TH sounds? The quick explanation is this, here are your teeth, here’s the tongue, it’s resting on your bottom teeth. There should be easy airflow between the tongue and the top teeth, sounds like this… or you can watch this video for a full and complete tutorial of how to do the TH sound. If you can make that sound then you’re good, let’s go more advanced!!

It gets more advanced when we mix the TH sound with other sounds in words. When they go together, it can be super difficult. So I’m going to show you the super easy way to pronounce it all properly. Okay let’s start easy. When one word finishes with a TH sound and the next word begins with the TH sound, for example: “with the”, “WITH” ends in a TH sound, “THE” begins with the TH sound. This word finishes with your mouth already to pronounce the next word, “with the”. It flows nicely. Practice with me… Now you’re not just going to say, “with the”. That’s not a sentence, that doesn’t make sense, so let’s use some example sentences that you will use in daily conversation. I agree with that. Again “with that”, “with” ends in TH, “that” begins with TH. So again, it’s one singular TH sound that links them together. “I agree with that”. This is an interesting sentence, okay, “I agree”, we link that with a /j/ sound… Say it with me, practice… Repeat with me. Practice! That’s how you improve! Your turn.

Okay, let’s go more advanced. Next one, when a TH sound comes after a T sound. Now you could pronounce the words separately, for example… No one speaks like that so, how do we make it sound natural? Easy! We glottalise the /T/… If you don’t remember what a glottal T is, watch this video here. Remember it’s fine to glottalise the T at the end of words. At the pub, sounds much easier, much better. Say it with me… For this, what’s happening inside the mouth? Well, my throat is closing to get that glottal sound for the /T/. Then my mouth goes into position to pronounce TH… Try it with me until you’re perfect… Where is he? At the pub. It flows better, it’s easier and it sounds more natural. Let’s make that /t/ glottal… Say it with me…

Okay, which sentences could you use this in regular conversation, to practice everyday? Ah! okay… Also notice “ME, AT”, we link that together again with a /j/ sound… Try it all together, first slow… You. Faster… You. Maybe you have a /p/ sound to end a word, followed by TH sounds. For example, “up the”. So it’s similar to a glottal stop. All the sound in the airway stops on the P. Repeat with me… An example sentence, where should I go? Go up the street. That sentence is interesting, too because we also use connected speech. We link “go” and “up” with a /w/ sound… Now usually if you said “up”, you have that sound after… But when you have “up the”, you don’t have that little sound in the middle…

Okay what about a K, then a TH? When are you back? I’m back thursday. “I’m back thursday”? No! We take the Khh out of khh, in “back”… Again, the sound stops in the throat and then you immediately go into the TH sound… Slowly…

Okay, I think that blah blah blah. More natural… Okay, did you see what I did? I stopped at a glottal stop here. it’s not “thAT” I made the /æ/ into a schwa /ə/ sound and the /t/ a glottal sound /ʔ/ I think that with the Papa Teach Me videos my pronunciation is gonna be perfect.

MORE ADVANCED! When a word ends with /n/ and the next word begins with TH. For example… If you’re one of those people who pronounces this as… with a hard sound, instead of… a soft sound; I’m going to show you how to fix that right now so you can pronounce it properly. Okay watch my mouth, particularly my tongue. That’s such a weird thing to ask, I know. Just trust me… My tongue is in a different place for both of those sounds… The /n/ my tongue is behind the teeth… My tongue is either between or just slightly in front of my teeth so, when I put “on the” together, instead of putting my tongue behind my teeth for the /n/, I bring it to the “TH” position, for the, watch… You try… It’s the same of course with… Don’t put your tongue behind the teeth. That is what makes you do the hard “duh” sound, you don’t want that… You don’t want to pronounce it like that.

Ok, so, common sentences, say these with me. Practice! Where are you? I’m on the way… Say it with me… Ok, are you on the bus? No I’m in the car. Say them again fast… Next one… Did you remember the tongue position? If not, do it again. Other common examples… This expression is a great one to use and notice the connected speech… So we connect “the other” with a /j/ sound… Say it… Try this one… I need to pee, but someone’s in the toilet. Someone’s always in the toilet.

Okay let’s get more advanced! L then TH sounds, for example words like… Many people find this difficult to pronounce but it’s easy because again, the tongue is already in a good position to go straight into the TH sound… It just comes forward a little bit, although. Another common sentence you might use with this is… I made that last T glottal because it sounds more natural to do that. So try with me, slowly first… Now faster…

MORE ADVANCED!! F then TH. Okay, now you could cheat. If you have a word like “of the”, for example “best of the best”, you might find it difficult going from /v/ to /ð/, so what we commonly do is we drop that F and we just have /ə/, a schwa sound… You try it… Aly is… Other common sentences you might use… Just know, you have two schwa sounds here… You say it. Practice. Try it. “How many things do you have to do today?”… “Are you at work today?”, “No I’m out of the office today”. “Sorry this is a bad time of the month for me”. So that is very common in fast speech. We just drop that last F, make it a schwa sound. However you might be thinking, ah, okay, even with words like “off”? With 2 Fs? Unfortunately not, no. If you have “off the”, for example… No you would have to pronounce that F. So again it might just take practice but practice with me… Practice changing your mouth shape from /f/ to /ð/… Whole sentence…

Okay what about S + TH? That sounds difficult! It’s not difficult, I’ll show you how to do it perfectly. The easy way, drop the TH sound altogether. For example… Notice I removed the TH sound… Again, in fast speech, this is very common. Another very common question you might ask… Well, again we can remove the TH… So again, I’ve removed that TH and I glottalised that final T… Say it with me… I’m sure you were perfect. Other very common questions… Again, remove the TH… Say it with me… Your turn. Practice! Easy way… I’m using 2 glottal Ts… Again, again, again! Fast speech, this is acceptable but if you’re talking slowly, it doesn’t sound good. So if you talk slowly, try to make an effort, practice saying them correctly. So practice them with me. This time the slow way. Just “Is this”… Whole sentence… Your turn. Practice! So if you’re still not perfect, don’t worry, watch it again. Practice, practice, practice, until you’re perfect. Also try to come up with your own sentences to practice with. Think of common daily expressions that you actually use, that use some of these combinations.