Hi again and welcome back to the American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Amanda,

and this is our 221st episode. I recently received an email from listener Antoine, asking if I would do a podcast

comparing the unvoiced T. TH sound and the F sound.

I haven't talked about the TH sounds in a long time, so that sounded like a fantastic idea.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why to convey the unvoiced TH to just the

F sound. Other sounds that non-native speakers often use in place of the unvoiced TH to just the F sound. Other sounds that non-native speakers often use in place of the unvoiced TH are the S sound and

T sound. So I should also include those. Before we get into comparisons, though, let's talk about

the unvoiced TH sound. First, why do I keep saying unvoiced TH sound instead of just the TH sound?

Well, remember that, just like many other consonant sounds in English,

we have two versions of the TH sound, an unvoiced version and a voiced version.

Let's explore unvoiced and voiced sounds with an easier pair, the P and B sounds.

The P sound is unvoiced.

Put a couple of fingers on the front of your throat and say the P sound, P.

Be sure that you're saying just the P sound and not the P sound plus a vowel added to it.

You want to say P and not P.

Now do the same thing with your fingers on your throat and say the B sound, B.

Do you feel the difference?

If you're doing it correctly, you'll feel the vibration in your throat with the B sound,

but not with the P sound.

The voiced and unvoiced Ticed TH sounds are the same idea,

but they're a little more confusing because both sounds are usually spelled TH.

For example, the TH in the word this, TH, TH, is voiced, and the TH in the word this, th, is voiced, and the TH in the word thing, is unvoiced.

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