How to pronounce the English TH sound (both of them)
If you learned English as an adult, there is a good chance th gives you trouble. It shows up in some of the most frequent words in the language — the, this, that, think, with — and yet very few other languages have it. So most learners swap in the closest sound they already know: s, z, t, d, or f.
The good news is that th is one of the easiest sounds to fix, because you can see and feel exactly where your tongue needs to be.
There are two TH sounds
English spelling hides it, but th is really two sounds:
- Voiceless /θ/ — think, three, bath, month. Only air, no buzz.
- Voiced /ð/ — the, this, mother, breathe. The same position, with your vocal cords buzzing.
Put your fingers on your throat and say thhhh (as in think), then thhhh (as in this). You should feel the buzz switch on for the second one. That buzz is the only difference.
Where your tongue goes
- Put the tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth — or just touching the back of your top teeth. You should be able to see a little of it in a mirror.
- Blow air gently over it. Do not press hard; the air needs to slip through.
- Hold it for a second before moving into the next sound.
If you hear s, your tongue is too far back. If you hear t or d, you are stopping the air instead of letting it flow. If you hear f, your lower lip has crept up to your teeth — keep it relaxed.
Why it falls apart at normal speed
Most learners can make a perfect th in a single word, then lose it the moment they speak a full sentence. That is normal. In connected speech, th often sits next to other consonants — with the, both these, months — and your mouth takes the shortcut it has practiced for years.
The fix is not to slow your whole sentence down forever. It is to rehearse the exact clusters you stumble on until the new tongue position becomes the shortcut.
A short TH routine
- Warm up with single words: think, thank, three, thirty, the, this, they, though.
- Move to pairs that contrast with your usual substitute: think / sink, three / tree, they / day, thought / taught.
- Shadow a real sentence that is full of th — any natural speech will have plenty. Listen, repeat, and record.
- Check the per-word feedback. Shadow Edge scores each phoneme, so you can see whether the th in thirty actually landed or slid back into an s.
- Repeat just the weak word, then put it back into the full sentence.
Do not over-correct
A th that is pushed too far out, with too much force, sounds just as odd as a missing one. Native speakers barely show their tongue at all in fast speech, and in the or that the sound is often very light. Aim for a soft, quick touch — not a performance.
If you want the bigger picture, read how to improve your English pronunciation down to the individual sound, or our guide to English speaking practice.