034 Voiced TH as in This and Unvoiced TH as in Thing
4: The Consonant Sounds: How to Say Them, Drills & Avoiding Faults
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4m 50s
This is a tricky pair of sounds because although they are always spelled the same way, “T.H.”, they can be pronounced as either voiced: “TH” or unvoiced. As ever, if you are confused, the dictionary will always help you. Phonetically, the voiced “TH”, as in This, symbol is a sort of “o” with a little “x” on top and the unvoiced “TH”, as in Thing, symbol is a zero with a horizontal line through the middle.
Where this sound can go wrong is when the unvoiced “TH” wrongly becomes a “FFF” sound so that “thing” is mispronounced as “fing”.
Also, the voiced “TH” can wrongly become a “V” so “this and that” become “vis and vat”. Watch out for these common mistakes!
Let’s practice the unvoiced “TH” sound with all the vowels.
Up Next in 4: The Consonant Sounds: How to Say Them, Drills & Avoiding Faults
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035 L as in Luck and R as in Red
This pair of sounds are not linked quite as obviously as the pairs we have studied so far - but the movement of the tongue that is needed to make each sound is very similar. These sounds are “L” and “R”.
To make the “L” sound, the tip of your tongue brushes over the alveolar ridge like this:
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036 M as in Money - N as in No and NG...
The sounds “M”, “N” and “NG” are nasal sounds - so called because the sound of the voice is pushed into your nasal resonating cavities. These are excellent sounds to use when you want to improve the resonance of your voice.
Humming on a “MMM” sound with your lips together and your teeth apart ...
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037 S as in Speech and Z as in Zoo
Our final pair of voiced and unvoiced sounds are “S” and “Z”.
These sounds are alveolar fricatives so the breath is channeled straight forward into the alveolar ridge: “SSS” “ZZZ”
The “S” sound can become slushy and move towards a “SH” sound. This happens particularly when the S is followed...
