Pronunciation Practice: th sound / th / / th / voiceless voiced
What are examples of voiced th and voiceless th?
/th/sound /ð/: The IPA symbol used to express the voiced /th/ sound as in the, that, there, those, etc. /θ/: The IPA symbol used to express the unvoiced /th/ sound as in think, thank, theft, thick, etc.
The only difference between these two sounds is the voicing.
How do we know if the th is voiced or voiceless?
When making the voiced sound /ð/, you should feel a vibration in your throat, while the voiceless sound /θ/ will not produce any vibration.
Another way is to pay attention to the position of your tongue.
For /ð/, the tongue is between the teeth, whereas for /θ/, the tongue is against the back of the teeth.
- As a general rule of thumb, initial 'th' is voiced in function words (the, then, there, those, that, this, though) and unvoiced in other words (thistle, thumb, third, theory, thorn, thing).
Initial 'thr' (through) and 'thw' (thwart) are always unvoiced.
I don't know the reason for this.
To make the voiced and unvoiced TH sounds, place the tip of your tongue between your top and bottom teeth. It should not stick out very far. Then blow air through the space between your tongue and your top teeth. You also blow air through the top teeth.