How to Pronounce the TH Sound: /θ/ and /ð/ Made Easy

If you have ever said "I tink so" or "zis is my bruzzer" and watched a listener pause for half a second, you already know the problem. Learning how to pronounce the TH sound in English is one of the most common goals for learners everywhere, because almost no other language uses both of the English TH sounds in daily speech. The good news: TH is a mechanical sound. Once you know where your tongue goes and how the air moves, you can train it like any other physical skill. This guide covers both TH sounds, the substitutions learners from different languages make, targeted drills, and a shadowing routine that moves the sound from slow drills into real speech. If you want the bigger picture first, our page on accurate English pronunciation explains how single sounds fit into rhythm and intonation.

Why the TH Sound Matters: Minimal Pairs That Change Meaning

English has two TH sounds, and both can change the meaning of a word when you replace them:

• /θ/ is voiceless, as in think, three, mouth, birthday.
• /ð/ is voiced, as in this, the, mother, breathe.

Look at what happens when the TH is swapped for a sound that feels "close enough":

• think → sink / tink / fink
• three → tree / free
• thought → taught / sought
• mouth → mouse
• they → day / zay
• then → den / zen
• breathe → breeze
• clothing → closing

Context usually rescues you, so a single wrong TH rarely causes a full misunderstanding. The real cost is effort: every substitution makes the listener work a little harder, and dozens of them in a short conversation make your English sound heavier than it is. Working on minimal pairs is a proven way to fix this, the same approach we use in our guide to minimal pairs for English vowels, applied here to consonants.

How to Pronounce the TH Sound: Mouth Position Step by Step

Both TH sounds are made in the same place. The only difference is whether your voice is on or off.

Step 1: Place the tongue

Relax your jaw and let the tip of your tongue touch the bottom edge of your upper front teeth. Some speakers put the tongue tip lightly between the teeth; others keep it just behind them. Both are correct. While you are learning, put it slightly between the teeth so you can see it in a mirror. If you cannot see any tongue at all, you are probably making /t/, /s/ or /d/.

Step 2: Keep the contact light

Do not press. TH is a fricative: the air must be able to escape through the narrow gap between your tongue and your teeth. If you press hard, the air stops and you get a /t/ or /d/ "pop". A soft, continuous hiss is the target.

Step 3: Blow air for /θ/

For the voiceless sound, blow air steadily over the tongue, like a quiet, flat "ssss" but with the tongue forward. Hold it: thhhhh. You should be able to make it last for three seconds without any pop.

Step 4: Add your voice for /ð/

Now keep exactly the same position and turn your voice on. Put your hand on your throat. For think there is no vibration; for this you should feel a buzz. Alternate slowly: thhhh – ðððð – thhhh – ðððð. That throat test is the quickest way to check yourself.

Our IPA lesson on the dental consonants /θ/ and /ð/ walks through this position with listen-and-repeat words, which is a good warm-up before the drills below.

The small words where /ð/ lives

Here is something many learners miss: /ð/ appears constantly in the shortest, most frequent words of English: the, this, that, these, those, they, them, their, there, then, than, though, with. You say these words hundreds of times a day. In connected speech they are usually short and unstressed, so the becomes a quick /ðə/, not a careful "dee". Fixing /ð/ in function words gives you the biggest improvement for the least effort, and it ties directly into the schwa and weak forms that make English rhythm work.

Common TH Mistakes Learners Make (by Native Language)

Every learner replaces TH with the closest sound their first language offers. Knowing your own pattern tells you exactly what to drill.

Pattern 1: TH → /t/ and /d/

Common for speakers of Vietnamese, Thai, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian and many others. Three becomes tree, this becomes dis. The tongue touches the teeth or ridge too hard and stops the air. Fix: keep the tongue soft, and stretch the sound before the vowel: th-th-three. If you hear a pop, start again.

Pattern 2: TH → /s/ and /z/

Typical for speakers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, German and Russian. Think becomes sink, the becomes ze. The air is right, but the tongue is too far back. Fix: say /s/, then slide your tongue forward until it touches your teeth while the air keeps flowing. You will hear the hiss turn into /θ/. Do the same with /z/ → /ð/.

Pattern 3: TH → /f/ and /v/

Heard from speakers of Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic dialects and even some native English accents. Three becomes free, brother becomes bruvver. The lips do the work instead of the tongue. Fix: keep your lower lip away from your upper teeth. Hold a finger against your lower lip if needed: if it moves, you are using /f/.

Pattern 4: TH in clusters and at the end of words

Even learners who can say think perfectly often struggle when TH meets other consonants: months /mʌnθs/, clothes /kləʊðz/, fifths, sixths, strengths. Many learners drop the TH completely. Natives also simplify some of these (clothes often sounds like "close"), but months and strengths still need a clear /θ/ before the /s/. Fix: build the cluster backwards: s → θs → nθs → months.

Pattern 5: TH in fast speech

In real conversation, TH often links with the sound before it. In in the, on the or and the, the tongue stays forward and the /n/ becomes dental, so it sounds almost like "in-nə". In what's the the /s/ and /ð/ blend together. These changes are normal, and learning them is part of mastering English connected speech and linking. Do not force a heavy, isolated TH into every phrase; aim for a light touch that flows.

TH Drills: From Slow Words to Full Sentences

Practise in this order. Move to the next stage only when the previous one feels easy.

Stage 1: Minimal pairs (slow)

• /θ/ vs /t/: thank – tank, thin – tin, three – tree, both – boat
• /θ/ vs /s/: think – sink, thick – sick, path – pass, mouth – mouse
• /θ/ vs /f/: three – free, thought – fought, thirst – first
• /ð/ vs /d/: they – day, then – den, those – doze, breathe – breed
• /ð/ vs /z/: then – zen, breathe – breeze, clothing – closing

Read each pair slowly, recording yourself. When you play it back, a listener should be able to tell which word you meant. If you are not sure, the problem is usually the tongue position, not the air.

Stage 2: Word families

Say each list three times at normal speed:

• think, thanks, thing, thousand, Thursday, theory, throw, through
• mother, father, brother, weather, together, other, rather
• birthday, nothing, something, healthy, author, method
• both, month, truth, health, mouth, fourth, with

Stage 3: Tongue twisters

• I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought.
• Three thin thieves thought a thousand thoughts.
• The father, the mother and the brother gathered together.

Speed is not the goal. Say each one at half speed with every TH clean, then increase gradually.

Stage 4: Real sentences

• I think that's the third time this month.
• Thanks for everything, that was really thoughtful.
• My brother and father both have birthdays on Thursday.
• They said the weather would be better than this.

A Shadowing Routine for the TH Sound

Drills teach your mouth the position. Shadowing teaches it to produce that position automatically, inside natural rhythm, at the speed real people speak. If you are new to the method, read the shadowing technique guide first. Then follow this 15-minute routine:

1. Pick a TH-rich clip (1 min). Choose short sentences full of the, this, that, think, through, mother, birthday. Videos about thinking, families and everyday life are ideal.
2. Listen without speaking (2 min). Replay one sentence two or three times and notice where every TH is, especially the quick /ð/ in small words.
3. Shadow slowly (4 min). Lower the playback speed and speak along with the speaker. Exaggerate the tongue position a little at first.
4. Record and compare (4 min). Record your version and listen to it next to the original. Did think stay /θ/, or did it slip back to tink or sink?
5. Speed up (4 min). Return to normal speed. Keep the TH light: the goal is a quick touch, not a long hiss.

Here are a few clips that work well for TH practice:

• a short talk on how to think faster and speak, full of think and the
• an A2–B1 podcast on how language shapes the way we think, clear and not too fast
• a short story about a birthday party, useful for birthday, mother and father

You can find more material in the education topic, or start with A2-level videos if you want slower, clearer speech while your tongue position settles.

Practise TH With Feedback on ShadowingEnglish

The hardest part of fixing TH on your own is hearing yourself accurately. Your ear is trained by your first language, so tink and think can sound identical to you. That is where feedback helps.

• Shadowing with video, sentence by sentence: replay any sentence, slow down the playback speed and repeat as many times as you need.
• AI pronunciation scoring per sound: record yourself and see a phoneme-level analysis that shows which sounds in each word were off, so you know whether your /θ/ actually landed.
• Tap-to-look-up dictionary: tap any word to see its IPA and hear the audio, useful for checking whether a TH is /θ/ or /ð/.
• IPA lessons under Training: structured units for each sound, including the dental /θ/ and /ð/ lesson.
• Dictation mode on the same videos: train your ear to catch the small /ð/ words you might be skipping.

For more targeted exercises on other sounds, browse our English pronunciation practice exercises.

TH is not a talent; it is a habit. Ten focused minutes a day of drills plus shadowing for three to four weeks is enough for most learners to make it automatic. Start free on ShadowingEnglish today: pick a TH-rich video, record one sentence, and let the AI show you exactly which sounds to fix next.