How to pronounce th in English: tongue position, the two th sounds, and daily drills

What are the two English th sounds?

Learning how to pronounce th starts with knowing there are two sounds. The letters th usually stand for /θ/ or /ð/. Both use a similar tongue position, but one is voiced and the other is not. Both are fricatives: air passes through a narrow space instead of being completely blocked. That makes them different from /t/ and /d/, which stop the air for a moment, and from /f/ and /v/, which use the lower lip.

Many common grammar words begin with /ð/: the, this, that, these, those, they, them, their, there, then, and than. Many other words begin with /θ/, including think, thank, theory, and Thursday. Treat this as a helpful pattern rather than a spelling rule: Thomas and Thames, for example, begin with /t/.

In IPA, /θ/ looks like a small oval with a line through it; /ð/ looks like a curved d with a crossbar. Learn each symbol next to a word you know. Think and this make good anchors. You don't need any technical terms to start the exercises.

Where does your tongue go for the th sound?

• Relax your jaw and leave the teeth slightly apart.
• Bring the tongue tip lightly toward the upper front teeth; a small amount may show.
• Let air pass between the tongue and teeth without making a complete seal.
• Keep the lower lip away from the upper teeth.
• Hold a gentle /θ/ briefly, then release into a vowel.

A mirror helps you check that your lower lip is not doing the work. Your tongue does not need to stick far out of your mouth, though. Some speakers make a dental version just behind the upper teeth. What matters is the sound and a steady flow of air, not how much tongue you can see.

For /ð/, keep the basic position and add voice. Lightly touch the front of your throat while alternating a sustained /θ/ and /ð/. You should feel more vibration during the voiced version. Do not press hard or force a long buzzing sound: everyday /ð/ is brief, and surrounding sounds affect its voicing.

Now alternate /əθə/ and /əðə/, using a relaxed vowel on each side. Say each three times with a pause between attempts. If /ð/ becomes /d/, soften the contact and let air continue. If either sound becomes /s/ or /z/, move the tongue a little farther forward and listen again.

Why does my th sound like t, s, or f?

When English asks for a sound your first language doesn't use, your mouth tends to reach for the closest one it already knows. The table shows common substitutions among learners, not rules for every speaker. Dialect and how much English you have heard both play a part. Some Spanish varieties have /θ/, and Arabic varieties differ in whether they retain the dental fricatives.

Record thin, tin, sin, and fin as separate words. If two sound the same, compare only that pair for the next session. "Fix your th" is too vague to act on. Find out whether the problem is tongue position, airflow, voicing, or the move into the next sound.

Don't practise a word you don't know just because it makes a neat pair. Check its meaning and pronunciation first, or use a familiar sentence with the target sound. The minimal-pair library offers more contrasts, and the Turkish accent guide gives a language-specific sequence.

How to say th: practise from single sounds to sentences

Work up this ladder with one sound at a time. Stop at the first stage where the movement starts to slip. Go back one stage for two careful attempts, then try again. The repetition counts are only a starting point; listening carefully matters more than hitting a number.

Use a short recording from a dictionary or teacher as your model. Listen once for the target, then repeat without reading. Then look at the text and say it again. Doing it in this order stops the spelling from pulling you back toward /t/ plus /h/. Say the sentence as a real sentence; if you stretch th too long, the phrase loses its rhythm.

How do you say th at the end of words and in clusters?

Start with a simple vowel-to-th movement: /iːθ/ in teeth or /əʊθ/ in a British both model. Your tongue should reach your teeth just as the vowel ends. Stop there, without adding an extra uh. Then add the first consonant of the word. For voiced endings, practise smooth and breathe with a light, voiced contact.

Breath and breathe are related but differ in both vowel and final consonant: breath /breθ/, breathe /briːð/. They are useful to compare, but they are not a strict minimal pair. Teeth /tiːθ/ and teethe /tiːð/ do form a voicing contrast; teethe is the verb used when a baby’s teeth are coming through.

For months /mʌnθs/, begin with /θs/: tongue at the teeth for th, then move slightly back for /s/. Add /n/ before it, then the rest of the word. For sixth /sɪksθ/, build the final /sθ/ and /ksθ/ slowly. Keep the jaw loose and do not insert a vowel between the consonants.

A realistic daily routine for the th sound

Spend two minutes identifying /θ/ and /ð/ in recorded words, two minutes checking the mouth movement, and three minutes on phrases. Use the last three minutes to record and compare a short unscripted answer. Choose a prompt such as What are three things you need this week? so the target appears in meaningful speech.

Keep one written cue: tongue forward, air continues, or add voice. If you find yourself needing five instructions at once, make the task smaller. On the next day, repeat one old phrase and add a new one. After several sessions, check whether the sound stays clear when you are concentrating on your message instead of your mouth.

Use the pronunciation checker for recurring word or phoneme mismatches. If a result is low, listen back to it before you try again. Repeating the same attempt many times won't help. Compare the model variety, microphone quality, and the actual word before deciding the sound is wrong. For the wider routine, see how to improve English pronunciation.