Specific cases of "TH" sound

[noofin]

Dear Friends,

Going straight to the problem.

When it comes to pronouncing words containing the "th" sounds separately or just one such word in a sentence, I do not have a problem with the pronunciation.

It's when there is more words with the "th" sound and/or words which end with a letter "t" in one sentence, I'm confused.


For example: " I need to get that thing. "

My question is; do we keep the tongue in between the teeth all the time to pronounce the last two words, or do we actually pull it back and forth?
If I say this sentence at a very slow pace, everything is OK View attachment slow.wma, but at a normal conversational pace, either the sounds are not very clean or I chokeView attachment fast.wma.

Any help appreciated!
Tom

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Dear Friends,

Going straight to the problem.

When it comes to pronouncing words containing the "th" sounds separately or just one such word in a sentence, I do not have a problem with the pronunciation.

It's when there are more words with the "th" sound or words which end with a letter "t" in one sentence that I'm confused.


For example: " I need to get that thing. "

My question is; do we keep the tongue in between the teeth all the time to pronounce the last two words, or do we actually pull it back and forth?
If I say this sentence at a very slow pace, everything is OK View attachment 1929, but at a normal conversational pace, either the sounds are not very clean or I choke.View attachment 1930.

Any help appreciated!
Tom

I know it's a tongue-twister for newcomers to English. You can say the t before the th quickly, but don't skip it. The trick is that you don't have to blow out on the t. Just touching your tongue to the top of your mouth is enough.

If you said "ge' tha' thing," you'd sound drunk or poorly educated. If you said "get 'at 'ing," you'd sound like you'd been to the dentist. So every part of the phrase needs to be pronounced.

My best advice: Listen more closely to how English speakers do it. It's easy once you get the (!) hang of it.

 

[Tdol]

Many BrE speakers will use a glottal instead of the /t/.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Many BrE speakers will use a glottal instead of the /t/.

Thanks, Tdol. You're right, as usual. I Googled "glottal t" and found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edxwQK1zBxw

That's what I was trying to say. Now you've given me a word to say it with!

 

[BobK]

Note that although you say 'the TH sound' the example includes two sounds that are represented by the letters 'th': /ð/ in 'this', and /θ/ in 'thing'. In those two phonemes, the tongue's in the same position, but /ð/ is voiced (and if you don't know what voicing is, that explains why you say things like 'the TH sound' ;-))

b