Phonetics: /θ/

In British English the Phonetic symbol /θ/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "think", and "thought" and the final one in "bath" and "both". It is called a voiceless consonant. 

Initial pronunciation of /θ/:

• thanks - theatre - theme - thin - thing - think - thirteen - thirty - thorough - thought - thousand - threat - threw/through - throw - thumb - Thursday;

Final pronunciation of /θ/:

• bath - both - earth - math(s) - path - teeth - tooth;

Homophones: threw / through

Many Spanish speakers don't distinguish clearly between /θ/ and /ð/ and when they see "th" tend to pronounce it /θ/, a sound which corresponds to the letter "z" in Spanish.

Another difficulty is the tendency to pronounce the initial letter "c" as /θ/ in words like "city" and "centre".

Written by NativeEnglish

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.