how to correctly pronounce the th-sound

2. The most common words.
Year 1 to 4.
Important that the pupils can pronounce the most
common words.
The, that, their, they, with, this, there, then, them
these, than.

3. Quest 1 - 4
Quest presents four difficult sounds in year 1 to 4.
Th – that, something, month, Thursday…
Ch – chair, cheese, chocolate, church…
Sh – shine, sheep, shop, share…
Qu – queen, quack, quiet …

4. Why the th-sound?
A common mistake: the learner replaces with a
Norwegian /t/. /tn/ versus /n/.
Another common mistake: the learner pronounces /s/
instead of //. This may lead to confusion between
”sick” and ”thick”.
Regarding /ð/ there are a lot of Norwegians who
pronounce this as /d/.

5. Focus on the th-sound.
There is two different sounds.
The voiced - with vibration /ð/
The voiceless – no vibration /θ/
How would you say this?
Theo and Thelma are teething this month.

6. Voiced sound /ð/
With vibration.
Ask the pupils to place their fingers on their throat.
Their tongue between their teeth. The air is to be let
out between the tongue and teeth.
Difficult? Ask the pupils to make a /z/ sound, then put
their tongue between their teeth when the make the
/z/ sound.

7. Lets try!
Now we can try out some words with the voiced th.
The, they, mother, father.

8. Voiceless sound /θ/
No vibration.
Ask the pupils to put their tongue between their
teeth. The air is to og out between the tongue and
upper teeth. There is no vibration on the vocal cords.
If this is difficult for the pupils they could start with a
regular /s/ and then put their tongue between their
teeth.

9. Lets try!
Now we can try to say some words with the voiceless
th.
Think, thank you, thing, Thursday.

10. Where’s your tongue?

11. Words with th at the
beginning.
Think
Thank
Thin
Thick
Thought
Theme
Thursday

12. Words with th in the middle.
Something
Author
Everything
Nothing

13. Word with th at the end
Both
Teeth
Path
Math
South
Mouth

14. Other words with th
Month
Tenth
Thirteenth
Wealth
Health
Three
Throw
Throat
Earth
North

15. How do we know the
difference?
The most common words that starts with th
pronounces with voiced th (with vibration).
The other words that starts with th pronounces with
voiceless th (without vibration).
Confusing?

16. Words that are pronounced
with /θ/
Thank, theory, theatre, therapy, thief, thin, thing,
third, thirst, thrive, through, throw, thunder, Thursday,
thumb, thug, three, throne, thread, thrash, thigh.

17. Words that are pronounced
with /ð/
Voiced sound.
The, this, that, these, those, they, them, their, theirs,
there, then, than, though.

18. Discussion
How do you teach these sounds?
Would you teach them differently now?
How much do you think we need to focus on correct
pronunciation?