IPA phoneme /ð/
|
that /ðæt/ |
In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ð/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "the", and "that" and the middle one in "mother" and "gather".
/ð/ is a voiced consonant; its unvoiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /θ/. Both phonemes are consistently spelled "th". See Decoding exercises: "th".
Contents
Common words[edit]
| æ | ɑː | |
| trap | father - start | |
| e | eɪ | eə |
| dress | face | square |
| ɪ | iː | ɪə |
| kit | fleece | near |
| ɒ | əʊ | ɔː |
| lot | goat | taught |
| ʊ | uː | ʊə |
| foot | goose | mature |
| juː | jʊə | |
| cute | cure | |
| ʌ | ə | ɜː |
| strut | comma | nurse |
| aɪ | aʊ | ɔɪ |
| price | mouth | choice |
| Normal sound: /b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z/ | ||
| ʃ | tʃ | ŋ |
| show | church | sing |
| ʒ | dʒ | j |
| usual | judge | you |
| θ | ð | s |
| think | that | see |
| IPA | Stress |
|---|---|
| ˈ | Primary stress hotel /həʊˈtel/ |
| ˌ | Secondary stress understand /ˌʌndərˈstænd/ |
| IPA | Syllabification |
|---|---|
| . | nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/, night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/ |
With initial /ð/:
- Grammar words: than - that - the - their - them - then - there - these - they - this - those - though - thus
/ð/ in mid-position:
- Grammar words: although - another - either - neither - other - rather - together - whether - within /wɪðˈɪn, wɪθˈɪnAmE/ - without /wɪˈðaʊt, wɪθˈaʊtAmE/
- Content words: bother - brother - clothing - father - farther - feather - further - gather - leather - mother - Netherlands - northern - rhythm - southern /ˈsʌðərn/ - weather
With final /ð/:
- Grammar word: with /wɪð/ or /wɪθ/
- Content words: breathe - smooth
Less common words[edit]
- /ð/ in mid-position : heathen, heather, worthy
- With final /ð/: bathe, booth /buːð,BrE buːθAmE/, clothe, loathe, soothe, teethe
Irregular plurals[edit]
Some words ending in /θ/ have a plural ending in /ðz/
- baths - mouths - paths - youths
Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1[edit]
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.
Spanish[edit]
The main difficulty is the difference between /ð/ and /d/, that is, they may have difficulty distinguishing between "they" and "day". In Spanish both sounds are allophones. This means that to the Spanish ear [aˈðjos], and [aˈdjos] are heard as the same word, even if only [aˈðjos] is the natural pronunciation of "adiós".
Since in Spanish [d] always follows [n], a sentence such as "can they go?" may be uttered as */kən deɪ ˈgəʊ/.
Spain[edit]
Many Spanish speakers from Spain don't distinguish clearly between /ð/ and /θ/ and when they see "th" tend to pronounce it /θ/, a sound which corresponds to the letter "z" in Spanish. They even replace the [ð] sound of standard Spanish by [θ]. For example, the name of the satirical website La Verdaz is a phonetic rendering of "La Verdad" in a regional accent from Spain.
See also[edit]
- Decoding exercises: "th"
- Pronunciation
- Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /ð/
- Pronunciation exercises: /θ/ vs /ð/
- TH-fronting
