Tricky consonants
1. Th
'th' in its voiceless /θ/ and voiced /ð/ variant is a difficult consonant for many speakers. No wonder, it only occurs in few languages in the world. This is a useful video explaining the pronunciation of 'th'. However, if you still feel challenged by it, you need not despair. The linguist Jenkins (2002) has shown that using other consonants instead of 'th', like /f/ or /t/, does not impact on your being understood. In fact, speakers of Irish English use /t/. Only substituting /s,z/ does not seem a good idea. In this analytical exercise, try to work out what former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers and a a German coastguard said and what they had actually wanted to say ... Note also that it has been predicted that 'th' will actually have disappeared from English by 2066!! Read about it here.
'th' in its voiceless /θ/ and voiced /ð/ variant is a difficult consonant for many speakers. No wonder, it only occurs in few languages in the world. This is a useful video explaining the pronunciation of 'th'. However, if you still feel challenged by it, you need not despair. The linguist Jenkins (2002) has shown that using other consonants instead of 'th', like /f/ or /t/, does not impact on your being understood. In fact, speakers of Irish English use /t/. Only substituting /s,z/ does not seem a good idea. In this analytical exercise, try to work out what former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers and a a German coastguard said and what they had actually wanted to say ... Note also that it has been predicted that 'th' will actually have disappeared from English by 2066!! Read about it here.
2. Exercises with th
Listen and repeat: words and phrases with 'th' and minimal pairs with 'th' and /t/.
Listen and repeat: words and phrases with 'th' and minimal pairs with 'th' and /t/.
3. Exercises with other consonants
(a) A quiz with /g/, /ʒ/ and /dʒ/; (b) minimal pairs with /s/ and /z/; (c) 50 items with /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, and (d) another quiz with v-f-w-b.
(a) A quiz with /g/, /ʒ/ and /dʒ/; (b) minimal pairs with /s/ and /z/; (c) 50 items with /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, and (d) another quiz with v-f-w-b.
