hey guys and welcome back to the clear
English corner
I'm Keenan your personal American accent
coach and this is a quick tip lesson
where we're going to talk about the th
and the AR sounds together in words like
three through and throw a lot of you all
sent me questions asking for help with
this sound combination following the
American are series so I thought we'd
just tackle those sounds together today
so diving right in whenever you're
coming across a word that's difficult
for you to pronounce we want to remember
to break it down to its smallest parts
so we want to think about the word sound
by sound so for example let's take the
word three even though there's five
letters that are in this word there's
actually only three sounds we have the
voiceless th followed by the earth and
then the vowel sound e3 so we start
first with the tip of the tongue under
the front teeth for the voiceless th the
airflow is continuous and you want to
make sure that the tip of the tongue and
the teeth are lightly touching so that
the airflow can continue to flow between
the tongue and the teeth then we're
moving into the ER sound now remember
though any time the air is coming after
a consonant sound the two sounds flow
together and your tongue is actually
getting into position for the ER sound
as you're making the consonant sound
that comes before it so the tip of your
tongue is under the front teeth for the
voiceless th sound but the sides of the
tongue are already connecting with the
inside of the back top molars so as
you're moving from the th into the our
sound
you're just retracting the tip of the
tongue a bit and creating your little
bowl shape back there with your tongue
fur fur
and the sides of the tongue are just
gliding back along the inside of the top
molars try it with me sir sir okay then
we're gonna move into the e vowel sound
with the lips retracting back for the e
sound so we've got three three and
notice how my lips begin moving back for
the e sound even as I'm saying the ER so
all of the sounds are flowing together
let's try it three three three days
there's only three days awesome
same thing with the word through let's
try it together the tip of the tongue is
under the front teeth for the voice th
then we're just pulling it back sides of
the tongue connecting with the inside of
the back top molars and sliding back
third fur then the lips round out for
the ooh ooh sound you want to make sure
you get good lip rounding so that you
have the proper resonance and duration
for this vowel sound through through
again those lips are rounding out even
as you're saying the error sound as all
the sounds flow together through through
almost through are we almost through
last one let's try the word throw throw
again that tongue tip coming under the
front teeth for the th retracting
directly back for the ER the sides of
the tongue staying connected to those
back top molars for therm and again lips
rounding out for the O sound out and
back throw throw throw it through
away several of you also asked for help
moving from the ER sound to the th so
let's reverse this and talk about that
real quick let's start with the word
earth a perfect example even though
there's five letters in this word
there's only two sounds the ER and the
voiceless th so the size of your tongue
are against the back top molars on the
inside back top molars for the air sound
you're making your spoon bowl shape with
your tongue as you're going into the th
the tongue just glides forward with the
tongue tip coming under the top front
teeth for those th the sides of your
tongue can stay connected to the inside
of the back top teeth and just glide
forward earth earth on earth nowhere on
earth you might encounter this sound
combination in between words also
another example that was asked about was
the phrase over there over there so same
thing you're coming to the ER sound at
the end of the word over over then the
tongue is just sliding forward under the
top front teeth the tip is under the top
front teeth this is gonna be the voiced
th for the word they're over there over
there
so the movement of the tongue is very
small and subtle just gliding forward I
see you over there another example for
them for them now that word for-4 most
the time in connected speech a native
speaker is going to reduce that word to
fur for them for them so you're just
going straight again from that sound a
gliding the tongue forward under the top
front teeth for the voiceless th in them
for them for
them this is for them so a little
helpful tip for that phrase and also a
small introduction to commonly reduced
words definitely more on that coming in
future lessons awesome practice so
remember as you're tackling these tricky
sounds you want to think about or the
tricky words you want to think about
these words one sound at a time and
slowly move from one sound to the next
being conscious of how your lips and
tongue are moving as you move from sound
to sound alright I hope this quick tip
lesson was helpful if you liked it
please be sure to give a thumbs up and
share with your friends as always thanks
so much for tuning in and I'll see you
next time