"TH" Pronunciation

HOW: There are two ways to pronounce the letter combination “th.”

- voiced: ð (as in this) - unvoiced: θ (as in thing)

To pronounce the unvoiced “th”sound, place the tip of your tongue between your top and bottom teeth and blow air between your tongue and your teeth.

To pronounce the voiced “th”sound, your tongue should be in the same position, but as you blow air between your tongue and your teeth, you actually need to make a sound by vibrating your vocal chords.

WHEN: There are no rules defining exactly when a “th” in a word is voiced and when it is unvoiced. However, there are some “regularities” that can be helpful.

At the beginning of a word, “th” is almost always voiceless (e.g. threat, thought, think, throw…)

However, if “th” is at the beginning of function words (i.e. pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions) then it is usually voiced (e.g. they, them, their, the, this, that, these, those, then, there, than, thus, though, therefore, thereafter…)

In the middle of an English word, the “th” is usually voiced (e.g. either, father, mother, brother, rather, further, together, weather, whether…)

However, in the middle of “loan words” (words that English received from another language) the “th” is generally voiceless (e.g. cathedral, enthusiasm, ethics, mathematics, lethal, method, mythical…)

At the end of a word, the “th” in nouns and adjectives are generally voiceless (e.g. bath, cloth, breath, tooth, teeth…)