Best way to practice the voiceless "th" sound

For me the best way to practice the voiceless "th" sound is by practicing with words ending with the voiceless "th". Why do I say that it is the best way? Because I found it very hard to make the voiceless "th" when it is at the end of a word. My favorite example would be the word "depth". Whenever I tried to pronounce the word "depth" I would either end up pronouncing "dep" or "dept".

Can you imagine if you cannot pronounce the voiceless "th" properly? This could lead to some confusion for your listener or to the person you are talking with. Instead of hearing "bath", without the voiceless "th", your listener would hear "bat". Or a "booth" would become a "boot". And how about "death"? Without the voiceless "th" your listener is going to hear "debt". It is a big difference to hear, "His DEATH was a big surprise to all." rather than, "His DEBT was a big surprise to all."

However, do not worry.  By practicing with words ending with the voiceless "Th" sound, you will be able to prevent such miscommunication. Hopefully, you have read my post about "How to pronounce the voiceless "th"" and would already know how to use the proper tools to make the sound.

After  I learned how to properly place my tongue between my teeth and to feel my tongue touching my lower lip, when I try to make the voiceless "th" sound, I was able to finally pronounce "DEPTH". Although I have to admit that sometimes, I still have to make a conscious effort to pronounce "Depth" and other words ending with the voiceless "th" correctly.

One way you can practice with words ending with the voiceless "th", is to practice with ordinal numbers. These are numbers that  tell the order of things in a set, like "first", "second" and so on. So you can practice with "fourth", "fifth", "sixth", "seventh", "eighth", "ninth", and so forth.

Here are other words that you can practice with. These words come from a list of the most common words used in English. If you encounter a word you are not familiar with you can go to http://dictionary.reference.com/ to learn the meaning of the word as well as listen to the correct pronunciation of the word or click on some of the words.

	mouth	forth	myth
month	strength	tooth	sixth
	faith	length	cloth
health	path	beneath	bath
both	worth	smooth	seventh
death	youth	fifth	booth
north	birth	depth	eighth
south	fourth	wealth	warmth
growth	breath	worth	twentieth
truth	earth	math

I hope this has been useful for you. I will be making more pronunciation exercises in the future. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

Video on how to pronounce the sounds of "Th"

I recently found this nice video by Heather Hansen  on how to pronounce the sounds of "th" both voiceless and voiced. Basically she also points out how to use your teeth, tongue and voice box/ throat properly in order to make the sounds of "th" 

How to Pronounce 'TH' - English Sound Practice (Heather Hansen)

I would like to add that you should try and feel your tongue touching your lower lip as you keep it between your teeth.

Click here for the Voiced "Th" blog entry to review how to make it or click here for the Voiceless "Th" blog entry.



I hope that this has been helpful. Let me know if you need any more help in improving your english pronunciation. 

How to Pronounce the Letter "R"

So making the letter "r" sound can be a little tricky, but by practicing with the previous consonant sounds, hopefully you will be able to follow the instructions to make the letter"r" sound.

First of all, the letter "r" is a voiced sound, so you should use your throat area by vibrating it. In making the letter "r" sound you should imagine the letter "r" sound as being just at the opening of your throat and allowing the air and vibrations come out of your mouth.

As for your tongue, you should feel the front of your tongue in a concave or "u" shape. With your tongue in a concave shape, you should feel it pushing against the middle of your upper palate or roof of the mouth. Remember that in the letter "n" sound, you will feel your tongue pushing against the area where your upper teeth and the roof of the mouth meet. In making the letter "r", your tongue should be further back in your mouth and pushing at the middle of the roof of the mouth.

Your lips and teeth are apart and not touching one another.

Finally, with your concave tongue pushing lightly against the middle of the roof of the mouth, vibrate your throat area and make the letter "r" sound.

Things to remember:

1) Form the front of your tongue into a concave or "u" shape.

2) Have your lips and teeth apart.

3) Slightly push your concave tongue against the middle of the roof of your mouth or your upper palate

4) With your tongue slightly pushing against the roof of your mouth, vibrate your throat area or larynx and make the continuous sound of the letter "r"

5) You should not feel your tongue vibrating strongly and hitting against the roof of your mouth, because this will create the rolling "r" sound.

Here are words you can practice with.

really	relationship	recognize	recall	relatively
right	road	region	refer	rain
run	receive	rather	researcher	respect
room	record	rock	replace	reading
right	recent	remove	return	repeat
real	Republican	religious	refuse	regional
right	red	radio	roll	record
read	realize	respond	run	regulation
result	rule	reveal	resident	ring
reason	risk	range	reader	revenue
research	rest	rather	ride	recommend
remember	represent	reflect	reporter	root
reach	recently	reality	river	relief
remain	reduce	responsibility	result	rating
raise	race	rich	responsible	row
require	response	relate	regular	regime
report	rise	reform	religion	rely
role	ready	restaurant	review	range
rate	resource	relation	reaction	rare
return	reference	release	remind	requirement

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

How to Pronounce the Letter "L"

In pronouncing the letter "l" sound, you should review the sound of the letter "d". The letter "l" sound is a continuous and voiced sound. So, you should feel your throat vibrating when making the letter "l" sound.

To make the letter "l" sound, you should have your lips and teeth apart and feel the tip of your tongue pushing against the area where your upper teeth and the roof of your mouth meet, just like the letter "d" or "t" sound. But, unlike the letter "d" and "t" sounds, you should only feel the tip of your tongue pushing against this intersection of your teeth and roof of the mouth. This will allow air and vibrations to come out of your mouth through the sides of your tongue. Now, vibrate your throat area or larynx to make the "l" sound.

Things to remember:

1) You should feel your teeth and lips apart and the tip of your tongue pushing against the area where your upper teeth and the roof of your mouth meet. This is very important. Without this pushing movement, the "l" sound will not sound correct.

2) Only the tip of your tongue should be pushing, so that the air and vibrations can come through the sides of your tongue and out of your mouth.

3) The "l" sound is a voiced sound, so you should vibrate your larynx or throat area to make the "l" sound.

Here are words you can practice with.

like	level	loss	location	landscape	Latin
look	low	lay	learning	long	label
life	love	lawyer	lady	length	lawsuit
last	local	little	lean	league	lost
leave	little	leg	lots	lack	literary
let	late	laugh	literature	limited	latter
live	leader	legal	leaf	liberal	likely
large	light	like	lead	legislation	lifetime
lot	less	labor	lip	land	lover
long	land	lot	lunch	lower	lie
little	love	lack	limit	live	loose
line	look	light	last	living	license
lose	listen	leadership	largely	list	load
law	less	lesson	locate	lab	leather
later	likely	living	loan	lucky	lawn
least	letter	lift	link	library	limitation
learn	language	limit	launch	layer	lifestyle
lead	lie	luck	long-term	later	loud
leading	list	light	late	link	laboratory
lock	left	literally	line	lake	lemon

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

How to Pronounce the "Ng" Sound (Part 1)

In this first part of discussing the pronunciation of "ng", I will be concentrating at how to pronounce the "ng" sound when "ng" is at the end of a word. When the "ng" is at the end of the word, it is a nasal sound just like the letters "m" and "n".

As a nasal sound, the way to make the "ng" sound is very close to the way you make the "g" sound.  So that you direct the vibrations from your throat to your nose, you need to close the opening from your throat with the back of your tongue. With the back of your tongue closing the opening from your throat, you vibrate your throat area or larynx. These vibrations are then sent to your nose because the air and vibrations can't leave through your mouth.

When the "ng" is at the end of a word, then it is a complete nasal sound. But, when the "ng" is in the word itself, then it will sound differently. This sound will be explained in a future post.

Things to remember:

1) Have your lips and teeth apart.

2) When the "ng" is at the end of the word, it is a pure nasal sound, so the sound is made through your nose.

3) You should feel the back of your tongue covering the opening from your throat to trap the vibrations and air.

4) The "ng" sound is a voiced sound, so you should vibrate your throat area or larynx to make the "ng" sound.

Here are words you can practice with.

thing	feeling	teaching	wedding	shopping
something	song	belong	leading	hunting
during	hang	being	saving	surprising
bring	spring	ring	marketing	working
young	evening	thinking	amazing	shooting
long	sing	hearing	parking	exciting
among	painting	setting	spending	dining
nothing	interesting	rating	king	depending
anything	along	long	increasing	ongoing
morning	beginning	wing	ring	standing
everything	willing	opening	engineering	bombing
including	understanding	fishing	swing	manufacturing
along	living	living	testing	operating
strong	growing	warning	drawing	lung
according	learning	funding	gang	running
building	following	housing	developing	fighting
wrong	finding	existing	ceiling	cooking
meeting	writing	regarding	advertising	swing
training	reading	remaining	clothing	killing
changing	meaning	planning	string	recording

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.