The Two 'th' Sounds in English: Tongue, Word Lists and a Self-Test

Think comes out as tink, this as dis, thirty as turty, and clothes as close: four everyday words with one cause, a tongue in the wrong place, so the air leaves the mouth the wrong way.

This guide fixes that without phonemic script: two sounds, three placement steps, a thirty-word list with a model line each, six drills and a five-minute check. If you want to know how to pronounce English words correctly, th is the best place to start, because a substituted th sounds less like an accent than like a different word.

Two sounds, one spelling, and how to tell them apart

English writes two sounds with the same two letters: the voiceless one in think, the voiced one in this. Both use the tongue at the front teeth; the difference is whether your vocal cords buzz.

Two fingers on your throat: think moves nothing, this vibrates, and a tissue in front of the mouth flutters less for the voiced one (Wikipedia, Pronunciation of English th, accessed 2 November 2026).

Most th words are voiceless — thin, thick, mouth, teeth — while the voiced sound sits in grammar words such as the, this, that, those, they, then and in mother, brother, other, weather, clothes, breathe.

Tongue placement in three steps, and why 'bite your tongue' fails

Step one: the tip rests lightly behind the top front teeth, or shows a little between them; native speakers use both.

Step two: everything else stays still — relaxed lips, jaw almost closed, no pressure, light enough to slide a sheet of paper out.

Step three: push air, not tongue. Two seconds of stream over the tip means friction; a stop and a pop means you have made a t.

Bite your tongue wastes weeks: a bite seals the gap the air needs, and a sealed tip is the shape of a t, so think arrives as tink. The fix is a subtraction — stop pressing, rest the tip, drop the jaw, let the air work.

What your listeners actually hear when you say t, d, s or z

• t for the voiceless sound: think becomes tink, thin becomes tin.
• d for the voiced sound: this becomes dis.
• s for the voiceless sound: think becomes sink, thick becomes sick.
• z for the voiced sound: this becomes zis.
• f for the voiceless sound: three becomes free.
• v for the voiced sound: brother becomes bruvver.

These are the documented patterns of th-stopping and th-fronting, and the homophone lists are long: thin and tin, thick and tick, three and tree, mouth and mouse (Wikipedia, Th-stopping; Th-fronting, accessed 2 November 2026).

Every substitution lands on a real word, so a listener hears a different word rather than an accent. A full sentence repairs that; a one-word answer or an amount does not.

A thirty-word th list, grouped by sound

Read one column at a time and say the short line after each word aloud; the lines keep the target sound clear of the consonants that cause substitutions.

Fifteen words with the voiceless sound

Word	Say it like this
think	I think you are right.
thank	Thank you for the call.
thick	The soup is too thick.
thin	The ice is thin here.
three	We need three chairs.
thirteen	He is thirteen today.
thirty	Thirty people signed up.
third	She finished third.
thousand	A thousand is enough.
Thursday	See you on Thursday.
throw	Throw the ball gently.
thumb	He hurt his thumb.
mouth	Keep your mouth closed.
teeth	Brush your teeth.
birthday	Her birthday is in March.

Fifteen words with the voiced sound

Word	Say it like this
this	This is my desk.
that	That was a long day.
these	These shoes fit well.
those	Those are mine.
they	They arrive at nine.
them	Give them the keys.
their	Their car is outside.
there	Put it over there.
then	Then we can leave.
mother	My mother called.
father	His father is a teacher.
brother	My brother lives nearby.
other	Take the other road.
weather	The weather is mild.
clothes	My clothes are still wet.

Say each table twice, slowly then at normal speed. A word that fails at speed is a placement problem, not a speed problem.

Minimal pairs: think and sink, thick and sick, three and tree

A minimal pair differs in one sound only, so it is a fair test: if both words sound the same when you say them, the th is not landing.

th word	Heard as
thin	tin
thick	sick
think	sink
three	tree
thought	taught
thread	tread
mouth	mouse
then	den
they	day
breathe	breed

Run it as a forced choice: say a pair, then ask which word came first. A listener asked whether it was clear says yes and gives you nothing.

th inside sentences: linking, and the fast version of clothes

Linking comes first: a th at the end of a word joins the vowel after it, so both of us runs as one piece, and with it, north of here and breathe in behave the same way.

Then weakening. The voiced th is the first sound to fade at speed, and the clearest example is clothes: careful speech keeps the th and the z together, as dictionaries show, while at speed the th drops and the z stays, so the word becomes a homophone of the verb close (Wiktionary, clothes, accessed 2 November 2026).

Six drills, read aloud, then again with the th words slow and everything else at normal speed.

1. Three trees grow beside the thin fence.
2. I think the sink is full again.
3. Their day starts at three thirty.
4. Breathe slowly and count to thirteen.
5. My mother and brother thank the author.
6. We need three free seats by the south door.

Line 1 puts three next to trees; line 5 is hardest, switching from mother to thank in one breath.

Numbers with th: thirteen, thirty, and how to pronounce English words correctly in prices and dates

three, thirteen and thirty open with the voiceless sound, third closes with it, and fourth to tenth close with it too.

In a price the sound repeats, so three hundred and thirty gives you three chances; in a date the day is an ordinal, so the third of March rests on one sound at the end of one word. Slow down where the facts live — numbers, dates and prices at about three-quarters speed — and give each th word its own beat.

A five-minute daily drill and a self-recording check

1. Thirty seconds: fingers on the throat. Ten this vibrate, ten think do not.
2. One minute: both columns of the word list, slowly, stopping on any word that pops.
3. One minute: the six drills, at normal speed, twice.
4. Two and a half minutes: the self-recording check below.

Self-recording check. Record the ten minimal pairs in one take, one second apart, without listening. Play it back and write ten lines: for each pair, the word a listener would pick from the first word alone. Pairs you decided wrongly go back to the three steps, because your ear is not neutral about your own voice and the written line forces the decision a listener has to make.

Frequently asked questions

How do I pronounce the th sound in English without biting my tongue?

The bite is the problem, not the tongue. Rest the tip behind the top front teeth, or between the teeth without pressure, and send a thin stream of air over it. If the air stops and pops, the tip is pressing; release the pressure and the sound appears. Keep the jaw relaxed too, because a clenched jaw pulls the tongue back into a t.

Why does 'clothes' sound like 'close' when native speakers say it?

Because the voiced th in clothes sits inside a cluster that is hard to finish at speed. The careful form keeps the th and the z; fast speech drops the th and keeps the z, and the result matches the verb close. The word is still understood as clothing from the sentence, so this is a reduction, not an error. When you let the th lighten, keep the z, because without it clothes turns into the adjective close, which ends in a hiss instead of a buzz.